Datasets:
withpi
/
patent_classification_question_preference

Dataset card Data Studio Files Community
input
null
response
stringlengths
1.55k
216k
chosen_question
stringclasses
36 values
rejected_question
stringclasses
36 values
margin
float64
0.25
0.25
pi_key
stringlengths
64
64
pi_score_chosen
float64
0
0.97
pi_score_rejected
float64
0
0.96
pi_score_chosen_sfc_q_30750
float64
0
0.95
pi_score_rejected_sfc_q_30750
float64
0
0.96
pi_score_chosen_sfc_o_33000
float64
0
0.97
pi_score_rejected_sfc_o_33000
float64
0
0.95
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.046143
0.006683
0.004608
0.000504
0.041504
0.004608
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.046143
0.149414
0.004608
0.040283
0.041504
0.086426
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.046143
0.00592
0.004608
0.000504
0.041504
0.040771
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Is 'Fixed Constructions' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.048096
0.051025
0.004608
0.029297
0.041504
0.06543
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.099609
0.001869
0.012024
0.000216
0.077148
0.005371
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.081543
0.318359
0.012817
0.087402
0.071777
0.217773
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.046143
0.722656
0.004608
0.193359
0.041504
0.039063
null
the disclosed embodiments provide a micro - fluidic device capable of fractionating a complex mixture of analytes , such as peptides or proteins , within a separation chamber zone according to their isoelectric points . the fractionated mixture is recovered as discrete fractions uniformly ejected from the separation chamber zone perpendicular to a direction in which the analytes move during fractionation , herein referred to as a “ direction of separation .” this is enabled at least in part by including one or more flow path deflector elements situated proximate an inlet port and further being situated in such a way as to be between the inlet port and a plurality of outlet ports . for instance , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and at least one of the plurality of outlet ports . upon the sample impacting the one or more flow path deflector elements , the sample can be redirected in a particular manner , such as a predetermined manner that enables the sample to flow in such a way that is substantially absent any lateral intermixing ( e . g ., of fractionated analyte groups , once separation has occurred ). in yet further embodiments , the one or more flow path deflector elements can block a shortest path between the inlet port and all of the plurality of outlet ports . the outlet ports can be preceded by ( e . g ., can be downstream of ) a plurality of channels . the channels can be substantially parallel to each other , and each can lead from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone to one of the plurality of outlet ports . each channel can be preceded by ( e . g ., downstream of ) a pair of walls that narrows in a direction leading to the channel , e . g ., thereby forming a bottleneck shape . furthermore , the separation chamber zone of the device is preferably less than 1 ml in volume , more preferably less than 500 μl and most preferably less than 250 μl . accordingly , the device provided in embodiments herein can be utilized for small but complex samples requiring low operational voltage . fig1 through 10 , wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , illustrate example embodiments of a micro - fluidic device . although certain embodiments will be described with reference to the example embodiments illustrated in the figures , it should be understood that many alternative forms can be embodied . one of skill in the art will appreciate different ways to alter the parameters of the embodiments disclosed , such as the size , shape , or type of elements or materials , in a manner still in keeping with the spirit and scope of the devices provided in the disclosure herein . fig1 and 2 depict one embodiment of the device , comprised of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 and lid 3 that is sealed to the chamber as to create a separation chamber zone 7 , a single inlet port 5 and multiple channels 12 ( e . g ., formed of a piping , tube , housing , sets of opposing walls , etc .) each leading to ( e . g ., terminating at ) an outlet port 2 ( e . g ., an opening , slit , hole , gap , orifice , etc .) forming an exit to one of the channels 12 . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 is less than 50 mm in length , and preferably less than 20 mm in length . the inlet port 5 is provided , e . g ., through the lid . a sample of analytes is introduced and flowed into the device via the inlet port . alternatively , analyte may be aspirated into the device by applying a negative pressure at the inlet port and drawing the sample in through the outlet ports . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 includes a plurality of different and preferably distinct portions , which can be designated as various chamber zones . accordingly , the device contains the separation chamber zone 7 , as well as a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be situated between the separation chamber zone 7 and the inlet port 5 , and the separation chamber zone 7 can be situated between fluid distribution chamber zone 15 and the channels 12 , e . g ., such that the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , the separation chamber zone 7 , the channels 12 , and the outlet ports 2 are arranged sequentially in a series of portions in fluid communication . accordingly , in illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . one or more flow path deflector elements ( such as an initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be situated in the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , and can “ smooth ” the fluid flow as it transitions from the inlet port to the separation chamber zone 7 , e . g ., by causing redirection of impinging analytes in such a way that produces laminar , substantially parallel flow of the analytes within the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 are included and situated in such a way as to be between the initial flow path deflector element 10 and a plurality of outlet ports 2 ( see fig3 ). for instance , the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 can be aligned in a row , and can be spaced at uniform or non - uniform distances from one another . accordingly , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can assist in discharging the sample from the device in a uniform manner subsequent to fractionation . in other embodiments , only a single flow path deflector element ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 ) is included . in still other embodiments , only the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 is included . one of skill in the art will appreciate a wide variety of ways to arrange the one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) in such a way as to create substantially parallel flow of a sample of analytes through the separation chamber zone 7 . once the sample of analytes has flowed as far as ( e . g ., has flowed into , but not beyond ) the separation chamber zone 7 , flow is preferably stopped . the sample of analytes is then fractionated in the separation chamber zone 7 between two electrode pads ( 8 and 9 ), which are connected to a direct current power supply via contacts 4 , 6 . one of skill in the art will appreciate other ways to create an electric field having a direction extending across a width of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , in the presence of such an electric field generated by the depicted or an alternative electric field generation device , the sample of analytes fractionates into a plurality of fractionated analyte groups . accordingly , it should be appreciated that the separation chamber zone 7 is the particular area in which the sample of analytes is intended to be fractionated . thus , in illustrative embodiments , the separation chamber zone 7 does not include any flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 , but rather is formed of an open area in which analytes of a sample can flow and separate according to isoelectric points under the presence of a generated electric field . thus , in illustrative embodiments provided herein , the separation chamber zone 7 can be defined as the open space situated between the channels 12 and the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . in such illustrative embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are included in a fluid distribution chamber zone 15 contained within the micro - fluidic chamber 1 ( see fig2 , 3 , and 6 ) which precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 is generally triangular shape . however , other shapes are possible and contemplated by the present disclosure . in general , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be any structural mechanism for determining or defining the flow path of a sample , as determined by impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can be cylindrical columns , walls forming defined pathways , or any other suitable deflector element . once sufficiently fractionated ( e . g ., in an amount suitable for the intended usages of the sample ), the fractionated analyte groups are pushed out of the device through the plurality of outlet ports 2 by re - initiating flow through the inlet port . in illustrative embodiments , prior to passing through the plurality of outlet ports 2 , the fractionated analyte groups additionally pass through a plurality of channels 12 , each of which leads from a different widthwise position in the separation chamber zone 7 to one of the plurality of outlet ports 2 . in illustrative embodiments , all of the plurality of channels 12 are substantially parallel to one another . however , in alternative embodiments , only some or none of the plurality of channels 12 are parallel to one another . in yet further illustrative embodiments , preceding ( e . g ., upstream of ) at least one of the channels 12 is a pair of substantially opposing walls 13 that narrow in a direction leading to the channel 12 . in this manner , the pair of substantially opposing walls 13 can form a bottleneck shape that compacts ( e . g ., compresses , condenses , intermixes , etc .) flow of one or more fractionated analyte groups flowing into the channel 12 . in illustrative embodiments , such a pair of walls 13 precedes ( e . g ., is upstream of ) each of the plurality of channels 12 , so as to form a plurality of pairs of substantially opposing and narrowing walls 13 . in illustrative embodiments , the analyte sample is mixed with buffer components that allow a ph gradient to form in an electric field to effect the isoelectric separation . the analyte is loaded into the device through the inlet port 5 by any suitable mechanical method , such as a micro - pump , syringe or pipette . once sample has flowed as far as the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., has flowed into but not beyond ), flow of the sample of analytes is preferably stopped . to minimize the amount of sample used , introduction into the separation chamber zone 7 can be accomplished by sandwiching the analyte between a leading , sample - free running buffer , and a trailing sample - free buffer . thus , analyte is substantially only present within the separation chamber zone 7 . a dc electric field is applied across the electrodes 4 , 6 , allowing a ph gradient to form , and for the proteins or peptides analytes to align in the electric field according to their pi . once fractionation is completed , the electric field is optionally turned off , flow is reinitiated through the inlet port 5 , and the fractionated analyte in the separation chamber zone 7 is forced via parallel flow through the multiplicity of outlet ports 2 . the flow path deflector elements 10 , the additional flow path deflector elements 11 , and the cross - sectional areas of the outlet ports 2 can be sized , shaped , and positioned in such a way to assure the substantially uniform and substantially parallel flow from the separation chamber zone 7 into the channels 12 and through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of fractionated analyte groups within the separation chamber zone 7 . fig3 depicts a fluid flow analysis through the device for a newtonian fluid , showing that flow is substantially parallel as the fractionated analyte groups are forced from the separation chamber zone 7 through the channels 12 ( depicted by the parallel nature and relatively uniform length of the flow arrows in the separation chamber ). as described previously herein , the substantially parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 and in the channels 12 can prevent lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . for ease of collection , the outlet ports 2 can be spaced in accordance with common , multiple - sample receiving vessels , such as 96 , 384 or 1536 well plate formats or any of various maldi target plate configurations . alternatively , the fractionated analyte can be blotted directly onto a membrane and probed with antibodies . an advantage of the device &# 39 ; s small size is that it is amenable to valuable samples as well as not introducing a large sample dilution factor that is common with other separation methods . the simple construction of the device makes it suitable for single use applications , such as high throughput analysis . the principles for the charge - based separation are the same as those known for isoelectric focusing . proteins or peptides are typically separated in an electric field in a ph gradient by migrating in the electric field until they reach the ph of their neutral charge , and migration ceases . most commonly , the separation is done in a polyacrylamide gel with the aid of mobile carrier ampholytes , immobilized acrylamido buffers , or both to create the ph gradient . since the device of the current invention is gel - free , the buffer systems used here need to support the formation of a suitable ph gradient in the electric field . this can be done using carrier ampholytes , or mixtures of amphoteric buffers , such as good &# 39 ; s buffers ( see for example u . s . pat . no . 5 , 447 , 612 ). it can be appreciated that the shape of the resultant ph profile is dependent upon the concentrations and number of components in the separation buffer . in peptide separations , for a relatively concentrated analyte , since the peptides themselves are amphoteric , they can behave like carrier ampholytes and support the creation of a ph gradient without the addition of many other buffer compounds . the choice of buffer components is affected by both the ph range required for the separation , and by the compatibility requirements of any downstream sample preparation , such as for mass spectrometry . the endpoints of the ph gradient established in the separation chamber can be affected by using immobilized acrylamido buffer polymers in the gel buffer pads 8 , 9 at the electrodes 4 , 6 , as is known in the art of making ipg strips . another important feature of the invention is that the hydraulic flow through the device is substantially parallel through the separation chamber to the outlet ports so that fractionated proteins or peptides can be recovered with minimal subsequent re - mixing . a flow analysis is shown in fig3 for a newtonian buffer , which represents a worst case for potential re - mixing . in some embodiments , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are designed such that the resulting pressure drop between the inlet distribution zone and the separation chamber promotes parallel flow in the separation chamber zone 7 . additionally , it might also be advantageous to add a polymer , or other component , that mitigates mixing by adding a yield stress to the buffer rheology . a yield stress in the buffer fluid &# 39 ; s rheology would have the effect of further promoting the parallel flow nature within the separation chamber zone 7 . a suitable component for this purpose is linear polyacrylamide , but other uncharged , water soluble polymers are adequate , such as polyethylene glycol and polysaccharides including , but not limited to , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , methylcellulose , or agarose . further , a mixture of linear acrylamido buffer polymers can serve the dual function of providing modified rheological properties and ability to establish a ph gradient in the electric field . accordingly , this micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be designed such that flow in the separation chamber zone 7 between the inlet port 5 and the multiple outlet ports 2 is substantially parallel . the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ( e . g ., forming an initial entry zone ) that includes flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 similarly can evenly distribute the buffer flow throughout the separation chamber zone 7 . it can be equally desirable to form the outlet ports 2 and / or channels 12 so as to promote substantially parallel flow pattern in the separation chamber zone 7 . the lengths and widths of the multiple channels 12 can be individually designed so that the flow across the separation zone is uniform , i . e ., the pressure distribution within the separation chamber zone 7 is maintained relatively uniform . for convenience , it is desirable to have the outlet ports 2 in register with some common collection device such as a 96 - well or 384 - well plate . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be small as compared to traditional ief devices , separation times are shorter , and the required voltage to affect fractionation is lower . since the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can be about 20 mm , and typical ipg strips are 70 to 110 mm in length , the applied voltages can be 15 - 30 % the applied voltages of a typical ipg application . this represents a significant reduction in required operating voltage . furthermore , given that the separation zone is gel - free , it is expected that the analyte components have electrophoretic mobilities 100 to 1000 greater than in typical ipg applications . therefore , the device provided herein provides benefits , such as reduced separation times and lower applied voltages . the device provided herein can be fabricated from any suitable material as is known in the art for micro - fluidic devices . a common material is silicon , which additionally can have the properties of electrically insulating and conductive regions that would facilitate the design and introduction of the anode and cathode electrodes . silicon also has good thermal conduction properties , so such a device could easily be cooled during the fractionation process . alternatively , polymeric materials such as polycarbonate or polydimethylsiloxane , or glass are also useful . the device disclosed herein is suitable for charge - based separations sufficient to enhance the performance of downstream analytical techniques , such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry . complex inlet and outlet pumping schemes are not required and thus can be excluded from certain embodiments , since the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are positioned in such a way as to cause the flow to be sufficiently uniform in the separation zone to prevent re - mixing of the separated analytes . consequently , the device can be loaded and unloaded using a laboratory pipette or another micro - pumping device , such as a syringe . for instance , fig4 and 5 depict the micro - fluidic device as an attachment to a standard laboratory pipette . the outlet ports are designed to coincide with the spacing of a 384 - well plate for convenient recovery of the separated analytes . unseparated sample can be aspirated into the separation chamber with the pipette , drawing the sample through the multiplicity of outlet ports . once the fractionation is complete , the separated analytes are pushed out again through the outlet ports by the pipette . fig6 depicts a further example embodiment , in which the channels 12 are positioned in such a way that a density of the channels 12 ( e . g ., a “ channel distribution density ”) increases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of a width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than a density of the channels 12 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the channels 12 can be a function of widthwise position that decreases when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances ( e . g ., distance 17 a ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be lesser than distances ( e . g ., distances 17 b ) between channels 12 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 ) that are included in the device can be arranged with a center - increasing distribution density . for example , a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 ( e . g ., a “ flow path distribution density ”) can increase when moving from a widthwise position aligned with an edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than a density of the flow path deflector elements 11 at a widthwise position in the micro - fluidic chamber 1 that is proximate either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . furthermore , the density of the flow path deflector elements 11 can be a function of widthwise position that increases ( e . g ., in a quadratic fashion ) when moving from a widthwise position aligned with either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 to a widthwise position aligned with the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . accordingly , distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 can be greater than distances between flow path deflector elements 11 situated nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . utilizing such distribution densities of the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 can be beneficial in some instances for promoting substantially parallel flow of sample through the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , by providing narrower gaps between the flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ) and / or the channels 12 , flow of sample can be restricted at positions where the pressure of the fluid is highest . this can cause buildup of sample at the high pressure , narrow passages , thereby causing lateral redirection of the sample , thus promoting distribution of the sample throughout the separation chamber zone 7 and further promoting parallel flow through the separation chamber zone 7 . it should be noted that the number of flow path deflector elements 11 can be equal or unequal to the number of channels 12 included in the device . furthermore , the distribution density of the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 11 . thus , the non - uniform distances between the channels 12 can be proportional or un - proportional to the non - uniform distances between the flow path deflector elements 11 . additionally or alternatively to having ( a ) a non - uniform distribution density of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 and / or ( b ) a non - uniform distribution density of the channels 12 , widths of the channels 12 can be non - uniform . for instance , fig7 depicts an example embodiment in which seven channels 12 a - g have widths 22 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position in the separation chamber 7 that is relatively nearer to a center of the width 16 thereof are narrower than channels 12 a - g leading from a widthwise position that is relatively farther from the center of the width 16 . accordingly , the widths 22 a , 22 g can be greater than the widths 22 b , 22 f ; the widths 22 b , 22 f can be greater than the widths 22 c , 22 e ; the widths 22 c , 22 e can be greater than the width 22 d . in this manner , widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g can decrease moving from either edge of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . this can be effective , for instance , in restricting flow of fractionated analyte groups through the middle portion ( i . e ., at the center of the width 16 ) of the separation chamber zone 7 , thereby restricting flow of the fractionated analyte groups at positions where pressure is higher . this , in turn , can promote uniform flow rates through all of the channels 12 a - g , thereby assisting in creating substantially parallel flow of the fractionated analyte groups through the separation chamber zone 7 . in illustrative embodiments , the widths 22 of the plurality of channels 12 increase as a function of widthwise position relative to a center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in further illustrative embodiments , the function by which the widths of the plurality of channels 12 increases is a quadratic function . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the channels can be characterized by significantly less amounts of variation among the widths than is schematically depicted in fig7 . in general , each width 22 a - g can be uniform or non - uniform across a length of the channel 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , each individual width 22 a - g is substantially uniform across an entire length 23 of the channel 12 a - g . the outlet ports 5 ( e . g ., at which the channels 12 terminate ) similarly can have widths that vary from one another , as with the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . for instance , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be the same as the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g , and thus the widths of the outlet ports 5 can increase as a ( e . g ., quadratic ) function of widthwise position relative to the center of the separation chamber zone 7 . alternatively , the widths of the outlet ports 5 can be different from the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in general , the widths of the outlet ports may be proportional or non - proportional to the widths 22 a - g of the channels 12 a - g . in the example embodiment of fig7 , the micro - fluidic chamber 1 of the device includes the initial flow path deflector element 10 as well as the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 . in this example embodiment , the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 are spaced apart at non - uniform distances , and the plurality of channels 12 a - g are spaced apart at uniform distances . accordingly , the non - uniform spacing of the plurality of flow path deflector elements 11 and the non - uniform widths 22 a - g of the plurality of channels 12 a - g ( i . e ., non - uniform across the plurality ) can work in combination to maintain flow through the separation chamber 7 in a substantially parallel manner preventing lateral intermixing . in general , the flow path deflector elements that are included in the device ( e . g ., the initial flow path deflector element 10 and / or the plurality of additional flow path deflector elements 11 ) can be any suitable physical structure for being positioned in such a way as to block the flow path of a sample of analytes and to thereby cause redirection of the sample upon impact of the sample against the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 . for instance , in the example embodiments depicted and described with reference to fig1 through 7 , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 are pins ( e . g ., cylindrical columns ), e . g ., constructed of silicone or any other suitable material . however , it should be appreciated that many other shapes and configurations are possible and contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure . for instance , fig8 illustrates several example embodiments of the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 from a top view . as illustrated , the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 can include one or more of a cylindrical column 16 , a foil shaped member 17 ( e . g ., a fin , which can have a elliptical cross section when viewed from a front view ), a triangular prism 18 , a v - shaped column 19 , a rectangular prism 20 , a thicket 21 ( e . g ., steel wool or other material forming a tortuous path within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 ), any other flow path deflector elements , and any suitable combination thereof . in embodiments including a thicket 21 , the thicket 21 can fill at least a portion , only a portion , or substantially all of the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . although the example embodiments of fig1 through 8 depict one or more flow path deflector elements ( e . g ., 10 , 11 ), it should be appreciated that in some alternative embodiments , flow path deflector elements are not included . for instance , fig9 depicts an example embodiment of a micro - fluidic chamber 1 for inclusion in devices provided herein . the micro - fluidic chamber 1 can include channels 12 having widths that are non - uniform across all of the channels 12 , as depicted . alternatively , the widths can be uniform across all of the channels 12 . in embodiments such as the one depicted in fig9 , sample can be introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion by drawing sample in through the outlet ports 2 , e . g ., as an alternative to introducing sample through the inlet port 5 . furthermore , in such embodiments , the lengths of the channels 12 can be significantly reduced , as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the present specification . for example , fig1 depicts a flow chart of a method for using the device of fig9 in order to fractionate a sample of analytes . sample is introduced into the separation chamber zone 7 in an evenly distributed fashion through the outlet ports ( step 110 ). more specifically , in illustrative embodiments , sample is drawn through each of the outlet ports 2 , through each of the channels 12 , and into a plurality of different widthwise positions in the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , sample can be introduced by producing a negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . in some embodiments , the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 is produced by actuating a syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump coupled to the inlet port 5 , which thereby causes the sample to flow into the outlet ports 2 from a fluid reservoir that is coupled to the outlet ports 2 . as an alternative , in some embodiments , sample may be caused to be introduced through the outlet ports 2 by generating a positive pressure at the outlet ports 2 . once sample is situated suitably within the separation chamber zone 7 , flow preferably is stopped ( step 112 ), e . g ., by halting actuating motion of the syringe , pipette , or other micro - pump producing the negative pressure at the inlet port 5 . the evenly distributed sample can be fractionated ( step 114 ), e . g ., by generating an electric field across the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . in this manner , a plurality of fractionated analyte groups can be generated after a sufficient period of time has passed . once fractionated , the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be pressurized to force the fractionated analyte groups out through the channels 12 and outlet ports 2 . for example , in illustrative embodiments , additional fluid ( e . g ., one or more gases , one or more liquids , or a combination thereof ) is introduced through the inlet port 5 into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , in such a way as to force the fractionated analyte groups back out through the outlet ports 5 . preferably , additional fluid that is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 to force fractionated analyte groups out the outlet ports 5 is less viscous than each of the plurality of fractionated analyte groups . when such additional , less viscous fluid is introduced into the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 , it contacts the boundary of the fractionated analyte groups and distributes within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 . once a sufficient quantity of the additional , less viscous fluid has passed through the inlet port 5 , the additional fluid will compress until it possesses a great enough pressure to push the fractionated analyte groups through the channels 12 and out the outlet ports 5 . given that the additional , less viscous fluid distributes evenly throughout the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 prior to undergoing sufficient compression to build up a motive force , the pressure generated thereby is substantially evenly distributed along the entire width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 ( e . g ., along the entire rearward boundary of the fractionated analyte groups ). this even distribution of the additional , less viscous fluid causes the fractionated analyte group to flow back through the separation chamber zone 7 in a substantially parallel fashion , thereby preventing substantially lateral intermixing of the fractionated analyte groups . alternatively or additionally to utilizing an additional ( e . g ., less viscous ) fluid , other methods of pressurizing the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 can be used in step 116 . furthermore , in embodiments where additional fluid is introduced in step 116 , it is possible to utilize a more viscous or equally viscous fluid , e . g ., by including the flow path deflector elements 10 , 11 within the fluid distribution chamber zone 15 in a manner sufficient to cause even distribution of the additional fluid therein prior to contacting the fractionated analyte groups . still other alternative embodiments are possible . for example , one of skill in the art will appreciate upon reading the present specification that there are other ways to shape the outlet ports 2 such that outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 are more restrictive to flow than outlet ports 2 having widthwise positions aligned nearer to the edges of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . for instance , fig1 a and 11b depict one such example of such a micro - fluidic chamber 1 of a micro - fluidic device from a top view and a front view , respectively . in particular , in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , depths ( e . g ., heights , as depicted in the front view of fig1 b ) of the outlet ports 2 can be variable . the variable depths can be provided as an alternative or addition to providing the outlet ports 2 with variables widths , as depicted at least in fig7 and 9 . in the example embodiment of fig1 a and 11b , the widths are constant . all values in fig1 a and 11b ( which are in inches ) are illustrative and in no way limit the embodiments provided herein . one of skill in the art will appreciate that there are many ways to provide the outlet ports 2 with variable areas achieving the effect of greater flow restriction at widthwise positions nearer the center of the width 16 of the separation chamber zone 7 . numerous modifications and alternative embodiments of the embodiments disclosed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the foregoing description . accordingly , this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode . details of the structure may vary substantially without departing from the spirit of the embodiments provided here , and exclusive use of all modifications that come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved . it is intended that the present invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law . it is also to be understood that the following claims are to cover all generic and specific features of the invention described herein , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . the publications , websites and other reference materials referenced herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference . the devices as depicted in fig1 and 2 were fabricated as follows . the micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) were cast in silicone ( elastosil ® lr 3003 / 20 , wacker chemical corporation , adrian , mich . ), allowed to set , but were not cured at elevated temperature . the separation zones ( 7 ) of these devices were about 20 mm by 5 mm , with a depth of about 0 . 5 mm . flow distribution elements ( 11 ) were an array of eighteen 0 . 5 mm diameter posts , quadratically spaced over a 12 mm span . the glass lid ( 3 ) was mated to the silicone micro - fluidic channels ( 1 ) assuring proper alignment of the access ports ( 4 , 5 and 6 ). adhesion of the glass to the silicone was accomplished under mild clamping pressure , and curing the assembly at about 190 ° c . for 1 hour . the assembled device was measured to have a separation zone ( 7 ) volume of about 70 μl . about 10 μl was required to fill the device up to the flow distribution chamber ( 15 ), and about 5 μl occupied all of the exit channels ( 12 ). therefore , the total fluid occupied in the device was about 85 μl . the electrode gel pads ( 8 and 9 ) were each measured to have a volume of about 7 . 5 μl . the electrode gels ( 8 and 9 ) were created as 2 % agarose ( agarose low eeo , type i , sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .). a 2 % agarose solution was created by dissolving the appropriate amount of agarose in a 20 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer at about 90 ° c . a dry device assembled in accordance with example 1 was heated to 60 ° c . in order to maintain the fluidity of the agarose solution . a 7 . 5 μl volume was pipetted into each electrode port . the device was cooled to room temperature , and the electrode gels were allowed to set . platinum wires were inserted into each electrode gel to facilitate connection to a power supply . a running buffer of 1 mm glutamic acid / 1 mm histidine / 1 mm lysine / 2 mm , ph 7 . 2 phosphate buffer ( all chemicals from sigma - aldrich co . llc , st . louis , mo .) was prepared . 7 . 5 μl of a saturated congo red solution was added to 150 μl of the running buffer . 80 μl of the congo red / running buffer mixture was introduced through the inlet port ( 5 ) into a device made in accordance with example 2 . the device was connected to an electrophoresis power supply ( model ev215 , consort bvba , turnhout , belgium ) and run at 50 vdc for 6 minutes . the initial current drawn by the device was 107 μa . the red color was observed to move from the cathode gel almost immediately , indicating migration of the congo red toward the anode . at the interface between the running buffer and the anode gel , blue material started to form , indicating a drop of the ph at the anode and the alignment of the running buffer components in the electric field . the blue color propagated across the separation chamber , as the clear zone at the cathode end grew . after about 4 minutes of running , the blue region reached about 8 mm across the separation chamber , and there were no traces of red color left . this indicates migration of the congo red toward the anode and a ph of less than about 3 . 0 in the anode region of the device ( congo red has a blue - red transition in a ph range of 3 . 0 - 5 . 2 ). after 6 minutes , the ending current was 172 μa . no disrupting eddy currents due to electroosmotic flow ( eof ) were observed . a device was assembled in accordance with example 2 , except the electrode gels were set at different phs to facilitate the formation of a ph gradient . the anode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm glutamic acid . the cathode gel was made as a 1 . 5 % agarose gel in 30 mm lysine . phycocyannin was run in a carrier ampholyte running buffer . native phycocyannin ( sigma - aldrich item p - 2172 ) was dissolved in a 2 % carrier ph 3 - 10 ampholyte solution ( sigma - aldrich item 39878 ). the device was run at 120 vdc for 1 hour . the initial current drawn by the system was about 130 μa ( about 15 mw ). the phycocyannin was observed to form a band within about 5 minutes near the anode end of the separation chamber . the band migrated to about 4 mm from the anode gel within 20 minutes of running , and remained stationary for the remainder of the run . the current drawn by the system was about 550 ( 6 . 6 mw ) from about 4 minutes to the end of the run . a device , as described in example 1 , was filled with water containing a blue food coloring . approximately 40 μl of water containing yellow food coloring was slowly introduced through the inlet port . a substantially straight blue - yellow boundary was observed in the middle of the separation chamber , thereby verifying parallel flow .
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
Should this patent be classified under 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
a5e616fcb1ff2cc70acb01e3016fbcce3e28432ff52437556f8a83251cf64794
0.046143
0.163086
0.004608
0.277344
0.041504
0.206055
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.000778
0.013611
0.000011
0.000075
0.000912
0.005554
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.001503
0.005066
0.000033
0.000368
0.000912
0.003082
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.005066
0.000488
0.00014
0.000012
0.002548
0.000149
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
Is 'Textiles; Paper' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.001503
0.001808
0.000031
0.000017
0.000912
0.000626
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.000778
0.013611
0.00001
0.001167
0.000912
0.03064
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.001503
0.001244
0.000031
0.000103
0.000912
0.001869
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.000778
0.000026
0.00001
0.000005
0.000912
0.000007
null
the following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention , and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope : diacritic : a mark , such as the cedilla of facade or the acute accent of résumé , added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical . diacritical character : a character that comprises a diacritic or is otherwise unique to a language or set of languages such as , for example , the thorn character . diacritic chord : a set of keys pressed concurrently that are used to identify a diacritical character . fig1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a system , a computer program product , and an associated method (“ the system 10 ”) for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout according to the present invention may be used . the diacritic chording system ( system 10 ) includes a software programming code or computer program product that is typically embedded within , or installed on a computer system 15 . alternatively , system 10 can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette , a cd , a hard drive , or like devices . system 10 may be installed in a keyboard driver 20 of the computer system 15 . in one embodiment , system 10 may be installed in the operating system 25 of the computer system 15 . in a further embodiment , system 10 may be installed in a keyboard 30 . in yet another embodiment , system 10 may be installed in any one or more of the operating system 25 , the keyboard driver 20 , or the keyboard 30 . characters generated by keyboard 30 are transmitted for display on a screen 35 either by the operating system 25 or an application 40 running on the computer system 15 . actions described herein as performed by the operating system 25 may be performed either by application 40 or by the operating system 25 . system 10 comprises a mechanism to detect simultaneous key - down events . system 10 intercepts key events from keyboard 30 . key - down events interpreted by system 10 as occurring concurrently are stored in a buffer . concurrent key - down events are interpreted by system 10 as a diacritic chord . system 10 interprets as a diacritic chord all key - down events that occur within a predetermined time threshold . the predetermined time threshold can be adjusted for a specific keyboard . typically , the predetermined time threshold is approximately 100 msec or less . fig2 illustrates an exemplary timeline 200 of key - down and key - up events in generating a letter “ a ” with a grave accent . timeline 200 comprises a timeline 205 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 210 for system 10 , a timeline 215 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 220 for screen 35 . the operating system 25 represents the operating system 25 and any applications that “ draw ” characters on screen 35 . at t 1 225 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 230 . at t 3 235 , the user presses the “ q ” key while still holding down the “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 4 240 , system 10 compares the two key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters , selects the appropriate symbol or character combination , and transmits a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 5 245 . screen 35 displays the diacritical character “ à ” at t 5 250 . the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 225 and t 3 235 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig2 as a threshold 255 . if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 225 and before the key - down event at t 3 235 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 3 235 occurs after the threshold 255 has expired , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . the method of system 10 as represented by timeline 200 waits for a key - up event , the presence of key events in the buffer that represent a diacritic chord , or the expiration of the threshold 255 to transmit a character to screen 35 . fig3 illustrates a timeline 300 for one embodiment in which key events or characters are transmitted directly to screen 35 . when system 10 detects a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character , system 10 transmits a backspace followed by the diacritical character . the backspace removes the previously transmitted character , replacing the previously transmitted character or characters with the diacritical character . timeline 300 comprises a timeline 305 for keyboard 30 , a timeline 310 for system 10 , a timeline 315 for operating system 25 , and an output timeline 320 for screen 35 . at t 1 325 , a user presses an “ a ” key . a key event representing the letter “ a ” is transmitted to system 10 . system 10 stores the key event in a queue in a buffer at t 2 330 and transmits the key event to the operating system 25 . at t 3 335 , the operating system 25 receives the key event . the operating system 25 transmits the character representing the key event to screen 35 at t 4 340 . at t 5 345 , the user presses the “ q ” key . a key event representing the letter “ q ” is transmitted to system 10 . at t 6 350 , system 10 stores the key event in the buffer and compares the key events stored in the buffer to a table of diacritic chords representing diacritical characters . if the key events stored in the buffer correspond to a diacritical character , system 10 selects the appropriate symbol or character combination ; in this example , system 10 transmits a backspace and a diacritical character “ à ” to the operating system 25 . the operating system 25 transmits the backspace and the diacritical character “ à ” to screen 35 at t 7 355 . the previously transmitted character is removed from screen 35 and the diacritical character “ à ” is displayed at t 8 360 . the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are not necessarily simultaneous . rather , the key - down events at t 1 325 and t 5 345 are required by system 10 to occur within the predetermined time threshold , represented in fig3 as a threshold 365 . this embodiment allows transmission of a character directly to a screen 35 , reducing delays between the key - down event and appearance of the character on screen 35 . otherwise , a character does not appear on screen 35 until after threshold 365 has expired so that system 10 can determine if the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord representing a diacritic character . as most of the letters entered by a user are not diacritic characters , this embodiment provides a means for more quickly transmitting characters to screen 35 . as before , if system 10 receives a key - up event after the key - down event at t 1 325 and before the key - down event at t 5 345 , system 10 transmits a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . if the key - down event at t 5 345 occurs after the threshold 365 , system 10 sends a key event representing the letter “ a ” to the operating system 25 . in this manner , system 10 distinguishes between key events that construct a diacritic chord for forming a diacritical character and key events representing individual characters . fig4 ( fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c , 4 d ) illustrates a table 400 of exemplary diacritic chords or key combinations that system 10 uses to form diacritical characters . most of the diacritical characters are formed using two keystrokes . a small proportion of diacritical characters are formed using three keystrokes . upper case diacritical characters are formed by adding the “ shift ” key to the diacritic chord listed in fig4 . system 10 consults the table 400 of diacritic chords illustrated by fig4 when a diacritic chord is detected in the buffer . if a match is found , system 10 emits the resulting diacritical character . otherwise , system 10 emits each character in the buffer individually . fig5 illustrates an exemplary keyboard 500 that comprises notations of the diacritical characters that may be formed by chording . for example , the key 505 for the number 6 is used in a diacritic chord to add a diacritic “^” to letters . a user can easily see by looking at the keyboard 500 that pressing a key 510 for the letter “ a ” and the key 505 for the number 6 in a diacritic chord generates a diacritical character “ â ”. the letter “ u ” with the diacritic ″ ( symbol 515 ) is placed between a key 520 for the number 8 and a key 525 for the number 9 to indicate that symbol 515 is formed when a user concurrently presses a key 530 for the letter “ u ”, the key 520 for the number 8 , and the key 525 for the number 9 . fig6 ( fig6 a , 6 b ) illustrates a method 600 of operation of system 10 for recognizing a diacritic chord and selecting a diacritical character corresponding to the diacritic chord . system 10 monitors keyboard 30 for key events at step 605 . when a key event occurs , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - down event at decision step 610 . if the key event is a key - down event , system 10 determines at decision step 615 whether the character represented by the key - down event is part of a diacritic chord . if the character represented by the key - down event is not part of a diacritic chord , system 10 emits the key - down event at step 620 . at step 625 , system 10 continues with normal key processing and returns to step 605 . if at decision step 615 the character represented by the key event is part of a diacritic chord , system 10 stores the key in a queue in a buffer at step 630 and starts a timeout timer for that key . at decision step 635 , system 10 determines whether keys accumulated in the queue match a diacritic chord in the table 400 of diacritic chords . if a match is found , system 10 empties the queue in the buffer , emits a key - down event and key - up event corresponding to the diacritic character in the table 400 of diacritic chords ( step 640 ). system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if no match is found at decision step 635 , system 10 proceeds to step 625 and processing continues as before . if a key - down event is not detected at decision step 610 , system 10 determines whether the key event is a key - up event at decision step 645 . if yes , system 10 determines whether the key represented by the key - up event is currently stored in the buffer at decision step 650 . if the key represented by the key - up event is stored in the buffer , system 10 emits the key - down and key - up events for that key at step 655 . at step 660 , system 10 removes the key from the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key . system 10 proceeds to step 625 , and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 650 , system 10 finds that the key represented by the key - up event is not stored in the queue in the buffer , system 10 emits a key - up event at step 665 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . if , at decision step 645 , system 10 determines that the key event is not a key - up event , system 10 determines whether the timer timeout has occurred at decision step 670 . if the timer timeout has occurred , system 10 emits a key - down event for the key currently stored in the queue in the buffer and stops the timeout timer for that key at step 675 . system 10 proceeds to step 660 and processing continues as before . the character detection and transformation process of system 10 is implemented as procedures that run in different threads . a pseudocode for the character detection and transformation process is as follows : // if the buffer contains two or more key - down events a search is // found the events are removed from the buffer and a key - down // the normal key processing in their place . another copy of the // if a key - up is received and the corresponding key - down event another thread of the character detection and transformation process expires old key events : // if any timestamp of an event in the buffer is older than threshold // the event is removed from the buffer and sent to the normal key event it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain applications of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for producing language specific diacritics for many languages from a standard keyboard layout described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . moreover , while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to diacritic symbols for latin - based languages or languages using a roman character set , it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to , for example , any character set in which diacritic chords can be used to form additional characters .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
1a9b5ef4b924a8987c6af6d112f07c8af7b23cfe001a39afd7d2b873140ba06a
0.001549
0.069336
0.000008
0.021606
0.002884
0.068359
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.02063
0.019165
0.001595
0.000066
0.121582
0.005737
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Is 'Performing Operations; Transporting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.013245
0.069336
0.001167
0.022339
0.054199
0.047363
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.02063
0.007111
0.001595
0.000246
0.125
0.00383
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Should this patent be classified under 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.005554
0.002472
0.000458
0.00038
0.056641
0.006897
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
Should this patent be classified under 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.014526
0.008606
0.002472
0.002808
0.137695
0.013245
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Should this patent be classified under 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.005554
0.095215
0.000458
0.012024
0.056641
0.077148
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Should this patent be classified under 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Electricity'?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.005554
0.080566
0.000458
0.002472
0.056641
0.007111
null
fig1 in the drawings shows a deployment sequence for a hardened target success signal - communicating weapon device according to the present invention . in the fig1 drawing there is represented a time sequence of events occurring after release of the weapon device 100 by an aircraft 102 . each event in this fig1 sequence is isolated from preceding and succeeding events by the divider symbols 105 . following deployment of the weapon device 100 , which may occur at a representative aircraft velocity of 1000 feet per second ( 682 miles per hour ) as indicated at 106 , 112 and 126 in the fig1 drawing , an altimeter device 208 in fig2 which becomes exposed beyond the weapon device tail section , may be used to deploy a main parachute 110 in order to separate a radio frequency repeater device 116 ( 202 in fig2 ) from the weapon device 100 during its airborne flight phase . as indicated by the weapon device velocity values at 106 , 112 and 126 in fig1 the parachutes 104 and 110 are arranged to extract the repeater package while it is airborne rather than to decrease the velocity of the weapon device appreciably . orientation of the weapon device is provided by a tail kit guidance package in order to attain a penetration attitude substantially normal to the earth &# 39 ; s surface and thereby prevent bounce or skip of the weapon device . the purpose of the parachutes 104 and 110 is therefore to extract the repeater with sufficient flight time remaining to receive an ensuing subterranean penetration data history and detonation signal from the penetrating warhead . at some altitude such as the 500 feet indicated at 115 in fig1 the fig2 altimeter 208 jettisons itself allowing a repeater package 116 to be extracted from a rearward cavity of the weapon device 100 while the warhead remainder of the device is allowed to continue with fin guidance toward the impact - penetration event represented at 120 in fig1 . shortly after impact the tail fins are stripped off by penetration thus exposing the tail transmitter of the invention , as it is located in a rearward portion of the weapon device 100 . the signals represented at 122 in fig1 are emitted and received in the repeater package 116 and retransmitted at some convenient frequency to a remote location where recording and detailed analysis of the weapon device 100 experiences may be accomplished . such retransmission may use any of several known techniques including communicating by a telemetry method . the most significant portion of these signals 122 and 118 of course occur commencing with the t = 0 weapon to surface impact indicated at 120 in fig1 and ensue for a period such as the 250 milliseconds indicated at 125 . during at least part of the 250 millisecond interval indicated at 125 in fig1 the repeater 116 may remain airborne via the parachutes 104 and 110 in order to achieve efficient communication with a receiver located at a distant mission analysis center ; signals of any convenient frequency including microwave , uhf , infrared or other frequencies may be used for this communication . efficient communication with the penetrating weapon 100 may be assured by tethering the repeater and its parachute to the weapon . the tether will slacken or break at impact allowing the repeater to descend more slowly as it listens and relays data signals from the burrowing transmitter . alternately in some arrangements of the invention it may also be desirable to locate the repeater on the earth &# 39 ; s surface rather than in the air during this communication period . since the effects of such subterranean signal transmission include communicated signal polarization changes it is desirable for the repeater receiving the subterranean signals to be capable of receiving multiple different signal polarizations without significant signal level attenuation . during the 250 - millisecond interval at 125 in fig1 accelerometer and other desired signals descriptive of the penetration experiences of the weapon device 100 are communicated to the mission analysis center preferably in real time although a delayed communication capability may be incorporated into the repeater 116 . these signals may include a final signal indicating energization of or an actual detonation of a faze and a main warhead charge in the weapon device 100 as is represented at 134 in fig1 . variations in the fig1 sequence are of course possible within the scope of the present invention . such variations may include for example launch of the weapon device 100 , or a related device such as a cannon sized device , from a ground - based or airborne cannon , communication of the munitions penetration data to the aircraft pilot or other crewmember or to an aircraft recorder in lieu of or in addition to communication to an analysis center , absence of one or more of the parachutes 104 and 110 and communication of additional or different signals from the weapon device 100 . additional details , particularly details regarding what are believed to be the most unconventional and technically challenging aspects of the fig1 sequence , the subterranean communication and the need for impact - tolerant hardware in the weapon device 100 are disclosed in subsequent portions of this document . as recited above deceleration forces measuring in the range of 22 , 000 times the force of gravity have been measured in connection with the impact of the weapon device 100 with the concrete of a buried hardened target as represented at 124 in fig1 . since such impact events precede the occurrence of events providing the most useful information from the weapon device 100 , i . e ., precede the occurrence of penetrations within the target 124 and the final detonation of the warhead , it is necessary for the communications apparatus accompanying the weapon device 100 to perform during the presence of forces resulting from these decelerations . this requirement is made more complex by the consideration that the most practical location for the communications apparatus is in the rear - most portion of the weapon device 100 , a location that can for example experience “ tail slap ” tri - axial motion during hard impacts . this location however does not interfere with use of a standard munitions guidance kit ( such as used for example with the u . s . military &# 39 ; s blu - 109 2000 pound class hardened target penetrator bomb in the form of a frequently attached fin kit ) with the weapon device 100 . this rear most location is also most desirable for accomplishing the subterranean communications represented at 122 in fig1 . fig2 in the drawings shows a physical representation of components usable with the exemplary blu - 109 weapon in performing the fig1 data collected target neutralization sequence . the fig2 components are intended to be located at the rear of for example a blu - 109 weapon , extending backward from the normal rear face of the device and are contained in a cylindrical cavity within the guidance fin kit that is attached to this rear face location on the weapon ; this fin kit and the other rearward portions of the fig2 apparatus are not shown in fig2 for the sake of drawing simplicity . the fig2 radar altimeter 208 extends beyond the fins of this kit after they unfold at weapon release . the altimeter jettisons itself , the parachute and the repeater when the remaining altitude provides enough flight time to acquire up to 250 milliseconds of subterranean data from the warhead . the lowermost of the fig2 objects , a “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , accompanies the blu - 109 weapon through impact and its subterranean antenna , transmitter , and power supply ( not shown in fig2 ) must perform throughout target penetration shocks as is discussed subsequently herein . the fig2 drawing also shows possible outline dimensions for the represented components . such dimensions include the overall “ birthday cake ” assembly diameter near 14 inches , a tail cavity diameter of 5 inches for the repeater and other components and an overall height of these components of 3 . 5 feet . in the fig2 drawing there is therefore shown an unhardened communications relay or repeater assembly 200 for a weapon such as the blu - 109 device . this unhardened assembly includes power and control apparatus for deploying the repeater and its drag chute at the command of the protruding radar altimeter 208 in fig2 . in the fig2 drawing there appears moreover the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 in which an impact - hardened weapon to repeater antenna is disposed , a repeater housing module 202 in which the fig1 repeater package 116 is housed , a parachute module 206 in which the fig1 parachutes 104 and 110 are received and an altimeter device module 208 in which a radar altimeter or timer or comparable deployment controlling apparatus is disposed . the fig2 arrangement of components is used to enable the sequence shown in fig1 . at 204 in the fig2 drawing is represented a container for the repeater to weapon tether discussed in connection with fig1 . at the perimeter of the “ birthday cake ” assembly a metallic flange 212 by which the fig2 apparatus is attached to the blu - 109 or other weapon is shown . this flange is also used with a restraining ring ( not shown ) to secure the birthday cake assembly . a ground plane element for the antenna of the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 appears at 210 in fig2 . additional details concerning the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 , including its impact hardening , antenna element configuration and fabrication details are disclosed in the co pending patent application afd 455a which is first identified above and incorporated by reference herein . the antenna lengthening and impact soil debris - isolating nature of the dielectric resin used to surround the antenna element and to provide impact force resistance are of particular interest in this antenna arrangement . fig3 in the drawings shows the manner in which the “ birthday cake ” assembly lower portions of the fig2 communications assembly 200 may attach to and cooperate with the typical blu - 109 weapon . in the fig3 drawing the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 weapon appears in a representative cross section outline form at 300 . the fig3 drawing omits many details of the blu - 109 weapon since for example it actually incorporates wall thickness dimensions of about one inch and includes components not shown in fig3 . the mounting flange 302 comprises the rearmost body portion of the blu - 109 ; mounting bolts by which the “ birthday cake ” assembly flange 212 of fig2 attaches to this mounting flange 302 appear at 304 . the “ birthday cake ” assembly 201 is shown to be excessively separated from the flange 302 at 312 in fig3 for drawing clarity purposes . the interior space of the fig3 device at 310 is used to contain munitions explosive material and the frontal portion of the device at 308 comprises a hardened - material , structurally rigid target - engaging portion . the annular inverse pyramidal space at 306 in fig3 may be used to contain an electronics circuit package ( an impact - hardened electronics package ) for the communications assembly 200 in keeping with a goal that the present munitions success information system be housed outside of the normal confines of the weapon and thereby serve as an electively added refinement to the weapon as needed . the impact - hardened electronics package for the fig3 device may include integrated circuit and discrete transistor electronic devices packaged in the manner described in the above identified and incorporated by reference herein co pending patent application afd456 and additional impact hardening techniques . these impact - hardened devices include a battery energy source , hardened oscillator , half watt keyed amplifier , a 20 watt discrete transistor driver and a discrete transistor radio frequency power amplifier operating in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency energy output in accordance with data disclosed in the following topic of this document . a ground plane portion of the communications assembly 200 appears at 210 in the fig2 drawing ; this ground plane is actually disposed at the lower face of the assembly without the intervening gap shown for clarification purposes in fig2 . in contrast with the invention of the above identified u . s . patent application of applicants &# 39 ; docket number afd456 it is desirable for the radio frequency signals of the present invention apparatus to remain continuous and active throughout a penetration event sequence . interruption of these signals by a spike of deceleration force for example , although undesirable , may be acceptable in the case of the locator beacon device of the ser . no . 09 / 832 , 439 document but not in the present data communication instance . the buried hardened target penetration represented at 121 in the fig1 drawing is an event of great interest in performing a success assessment for the fig1 sequence . the time delay between earth penetration at 120 and arrival at target 124 , the delay occurring during an early part of the 250 millisecond interval recited at 125 in fig1 together with the force magnitude and duration of each of the first , second and subsequent impact events and the special signal generated at warhead detonation , are particularly significant events in a success analysis of the fig1 sequence . collecting signals descriptive of these several events implies the need for communication through a lengthening subterranean path from the penetrating weapon while it is moving through the earth and the target hardening layers . subterranean communication of this nature has heretofore been accomplished while using lower frequency - disposed portions of the radio frequency spectrum as disclosed above herein . in the present instance however the physical dimensions of practical weapons are incompatible with the efficient antenna lengths needed for these lower frequency communications and resort to frequencies in the ultra high radio frequency range is believed desirable . the subterranean use of such frequencies appears however to have in the past been limited to intentionally energy dissipative instances wherein ground heating for oil production or other purposes is desired or instances wherein subterranean measurements are being made for example for mineral exploration purposes . we have accomplished measurements indicating however that communication at ultra high radio frequencies is possible through a subterranean path at least to a degree sufficient to support the present weapon data communication need . fig5 in the drawings illustrates the results of a portion of these measurements conducted in a grout - lined plastic piped well in sandy florida soil and at a frequency in the 300 - megahertz ultra high radio frequency range . in the fig5 drawing the vertical scale at the left represents signal strength with respect to a one - milliwatt reference and the horizontal scale at 502 represents length of the slant range subterranean path . the well providing the fig5 data comprises a 2 - inch diameter pvc pipe lined with one inch of concrete grout to a depth beyond the 90 ft water table . signal strength measurements for one and 600 - milliwatt transmitters are taken as each transmitter is lowered toward the water table . as indicated at 510 in the fig5 drawing the point of received signal measurement is located at a horizontal distance of 17 . 5 feet from the well opening into the earth . depths beyond 35 feet are believed to preclude significant air path transmission of test signals from the buried antenna that would emerge from points less than the 17 . 5 ft radial previously discussed . the uppermost curve at 504 in fig5 represents measurements made with a transmitter input power of 600 milliwatts and the lower curve at 506 with an input power of 1 milliwatt . the horizontal line at 512 in fig5 represents the − 96 dbm signal strength sensitivity threshold of an ash receiver of the type described later herein ( the fig5 test signals are received using a signal integrating spectrum analyzer of roughly − 135 dbm sensitivity ). under these conditions therefore fig5 signals above the receiver threshold line 512 represent successful communications from the subterranean antenna . notably even with the modest power levels shown in fig5 ( power levels summarized at 508 in fig5 ) subterranean uhf communication over path lengths of 40 and 65 feet are reasonably feasible . in order to accommodate greater distances between a subterranean antenna and the contemplated above ground repeater / receiver , and to accommodate soil conditions perhaps less favorable to signal conveyance , greater power levels , levels in the range of 200 watts of radio frequency power , are preferred for the warhead transmitter . use of the repeater represented at 116 in the fig1 drawing and the repeater location - determining tether 204 in fig2 are accommodations of the attenuated ultra high radio frequency signal transmission achieved through various soil and target types to be expected during operational use of the present invention data collection invention . under the most favorable conditions contemplated it may be possible to omit the repeater apparatus 116 and rely on direct warhead to analysis - location transmission however presently available data suggests this is a very limited possibility . uhf transmitter output power in the 250 - watt range may be obtained for example with the use of a motorola mrf 275g ceramic field effect transistor as a final radio frequency amplifier stage . a one time “ thermal battery ” such as the eap - 12181 battery manufactured by the eagle picher corporation may be used as an energy source of this capability ( over the milliseconds short operating time needed ) for the warhead transmitter . batteries of this type may be used to energize a twenty - four volt , fifteen - ampere load for a period of 250 milliseconds for example . batteries of this type are provided with an electro - thermally removable internal seal maintaining the reactive components in a separated condition until an externally sourced electrical activation signal is applied to the battery to rupture the seal , commence the exothermic chemical reaction and initiate the production of electrical energy . a pull pin upon weapon launch from the aircraft may provide the activation signal for the transmitter and repeater power and the altimeter . the activation signal for the warhead transmitter ( the birthday cake transmitter ) power may be provided by the altimeter signal that extracts the repeater from the tail kit or from impact with the earth . the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be operated at a low power level when the repeater is first extracted in air and operated at the higher power level upon earth impact in order to conserve energy and yet overcome the greater signal losses encountered with soil and target penetration . following a similar line of reasoning the “ birthday cake ” assembly transmitter may be specially tuned for maximum efficiency in a soil and debris environment where the signal absorption is greatest . such a less efficient - in - air arrangement offers the additional advantage that the receiver sensitivity does not have to change as dramatically when the transmitter is suddenly buried . custom tailoring of the battery to fit in the space 306 or a comparable space in another weapon / communications apparatus package and to tolerate impact deceleration forces is appropriate . data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types as generated in the weapon fuze and described above herein may be applied to a modulation input port of the transmitter . several arrangements for generating data signals of the deceleration measurement type and other types in the weapon fuze are found in the series of patents including the following : although conventional radio frequency energy receiver apparatus may be used to embody the receiver portion of the repeater 116 in fig1 we have found that improved results including greater weak signal sensitivity ( e . g . − 92 dbm ) and wider signal dynamic range acceptance characteristics may be obtained with use of the ash ( amplifier - sequenced hybrid ) receiver arrangement that is available from the rf monolithics , incorporated company of dallas , tex . this receiver is available in the form of a small package , low operating voltage and current integrated circuit of “ rx1120 ” nomenclature for example for use in the 300 megahertz uhf range . receivers of this type are based on the principle of segregating an employed unusually large degree of signal amplification into plural segments . these amplifier segments are isolated by a signal time delay element ( usually accomplished with a surface acoustic wave , or saw , delay line ) in order that the large degree of amplification employed operates in time sequence and thereby avoid amplifier oscillation . the direct conversion — energy packet acceptance reception accomplished in the ash receiver , as opposed to conventional superhetrodyne — envelope detection , is a notable aspect of the present invention and is supported by believed to be new knowledge of the phase and wave polarization anomalies caused by radiating radio frequency energy signals through soil . soil properties can for example destroy envelope accuracy but only attenuate energy packets . soil effects may also change signal polarization ; these effects suggest the use of repeater 116 reception of multi polarization capability . moreover in addition to and in extension of the transmitter power level changes discussed above , in connection with battery considerations , the transmitter - antenna efficiency in the present invention “ birthday cake ” assembly may also be specially tailored for greatest efficiency in dense media in order that less power is radiated in light media where losses are lower . such arrangement additionally moderates the rate at which the repeater 116 receiver gain must react to the drastic changes in attenuation represented in fig5 . in this regard it is interesting to appreciate that the weapon device 100 traverses the fig5 attenuation curve in the early part of the 250 milliseconds interval recited at 125 . with respect to repeater 116 receiving signals of differing polarization , it is likely that , in addition to signal polarization changes attributed to communication through paths of changing subterranean length and changing subterranean media content , this communication may also involve a spinning or otherwise moving repeater receiver since the repeater can be suspended in the air during the period of most relevant data transmission . for such signal diversity reception conditions a receiver coupled to a single multiple polarization - responsive antenna or to a plurality of differing polarization - responsive antennas may be used in the repeater 116 . a more practical arrangement for this receiver however appears to call for use of a plurality of different receiver circuits , three receiver circuits for example , with each such receiver circuit coupled to an antenna of differing signal polarization preference . in view of the small size and relatively low cost of the preferred ash receivers the increased complexity thus imposed appears justified . receivers of the ash type are described in several u . s . patents including the u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 454 , 488 ; 4 , 616 , 197 ; 4 , 749 , 964 ; 4 , 92 , 925 and others pending at the 1994 time of printing the rf monolithics catalog available during preparation of this document . most of these and other rf monolithics inc . ( and indeed certain other texas corporation ) patents involve the name of one darrell l . ash as an inventor . the contents of these patents are also hereby incorporated by reference herein . additional information concerning the ash receiver , its unusually high sensitivity , unusual dynamic range and its incorporation into useful apparatus is disclosed in the rf monolithics inc publication “ ash transceiver designer &# 39 ; s guide ” ( also hereby incorporated by reference herein ) one version of which is identified as updated 2001 . 01 . 11 . this and additional relevant technical information are also available by way of a rf monolithics internet home page , currently at http :// www . rfm . com /. in summary , the disclosed hardened target penetrator weapon system deploys a receiver repeater deployed before weapon impact and a warhead transmitter capable of surviving impact and shocks during soil and buried target penetration . the transmitter sends target properties and fuze performance information to the deployed repeater receiver for retransmission to an analysis or command center . the target and fuze information ultimately reduce the increased risk to pilots associated with repeated target strikes and also provide data to enhance future weapon developments . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment 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 . obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings . the embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the inventions in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly , legally and equitably entitled .
Should this patent be classified under 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Should this patent be classified under 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
07263831288a5cf272c38c54f65ff74156682dfc6ebb717d0e8933b60e2c973a
0.005554
0.091309
0.000458
0.012451
0.056641
0.069336
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.006683
0.003281
0.000038
0.000062
0.004761
0.002884
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.008606
0.068359
0.000132
0.001549
0.006897
0.020386
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.016357
0.000075
0.000149
0.000001
0.01001
0.000626
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.016357
0.000035
0.000149
0.000001
0.01001
0.000203
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.00592
0.005371
0.000024
0.000261
0.017456
0.013611
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.015442
0.00071
0.000149
0.00002
0.01001
0.001411
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.008606
0.000645
0.000132
0.000005
0.006897
0.000587
null
referring to fig1 , a system in accordance with the present invention requires a data processing device 1 ( such as a personal computer , laptop or pda ) from which image data is transferred and a display device 3 connected to the data processing device 1 over a network 2 . a display device 3 of this sort will hereinafter be referred to as a network enabled display ( ned 3 ). fig1 shows a data processing device 1 running applications 10 , software and / or hardware components 11 for converting graphical data and a network interface 12 . the ned 3 includes a network interface 13 , a decoder 14 , a memory 15 and display driver 16 , as well as a display screen 17 . a typical implementation of the present invention in which data is displayed on a display device will now be described with reference to fig1 , in terms of the specific steps the data goes through . first , an application or group of applications 10 on the data processing device 1 creates some graphical output . the application might , for example , draw some text or display an image . the application may have the facilities to render the graphical output into pixels itself , it may make use of some library software which provides graphics services , or it may use a graphics protocol or other description of the desired output . in the following example a single application is described , but it should be noted that the invention is applicable to multiple applications , typically those creating a workspace environment belonging to a particular user of the system . the graphical output is then converted on the data processing device 1 by one or more software or hardware components 11 into a form suitable for sending over a network connection to a display . this stage may be implemented in a number of ways . a software device driver may intercept graphical data from an existing application , convert it into data suitable for a ned and transmit that data across the network . alternatively , the application may be written in the knowledge that it will be driving a ned and therefore create ned compatible output itself . it is recognised that there are other possible methods to capture the graphical output of an application and translate and transmit it in the low - level commands understood by a ned . these commands include pixel data and other operations for manipulating the display , as described below . pixel data included in the command stream may be in ‘ raw ’ form or may be compressed in some way . the data compression / decompression method used will in general be lossless . an encryption engine may be used to encrypt the pixel / command data before it is sent over the network . referring again to fig1 , the network interface subsystem 13 on each ned 3 receives data intended for that ned 3 . generally this will be specifically addressed to the individual display , although it may also be data which is broadcast or multicast to multiple neds 3 . the received data is decoded at decoder 14 . this may involve a security / decryption unit . the data intended for display is converted into a form suitable for writing into a framebuffer or cache . the data may also include commands which manipulate the framebuffer , cache or the display in other ways . the copy command described below is a typical example . pixel data is written into the framebuffer directly or into other memory 15 for possible future display or manipulation by later commands . a subsystem 16 is responsible for taking the data in the framebuffer and using it to drive the display . this process is well understood in the art and will depend on the nature of the display used . in the following description of the protocols that may be used , the term ‘ length ’ refers to a measure of the amount of data being sent . data is directed to a memory address at the display device . for this reason this type of protocol will be referred to as an address - based graphics protocol . commands that may be sent to the ned 3 include but are not limited to : this command is accompanied by an address , a length , and the amount of pixel data specified by the length , which is to be written into the ned &# 39 ; s 3 memory at the specified address . this is similar to raw except that the pixel data is encoded as one or more repetitions of ( count , value ), each indicating that the specified number of pixels of the given value should be written into memory . this command is accompanied by a source address , a destination address , and a length indicating the amount of data to be copied from the former to the latter . most neds 3 will have at least two framebuffers , to allow for double - buffering of the display , and this command indicates that a framebuffer has been updated to a consistent ‘ complete ’ state and is suitable for displaying to the user . in one embodiment , each command is represented by a particular byte value and is followed by its arguments in the data stream . typically it is possible to incorporate flags in the data which specify that addresses are to be repeated or continued from the previous command . this reduces unnecessary repetition of addresses . all pixel data is written directly to a memory address and any offsets are directly incorporated in that manner . information sent from the ned 3 back to the data processing device 1 typically includes confirmation of the above commands and status information . the address - based protocol of the present invention is highly effective for use in a number of applications . for example , the process of adding multiple screens to a computer for the purpose of providing an expanded desktop . the address - based protocol of the present invention provides a more efficient method of transmitting the graphical data in this process than was previously available . fig2 illustrates a first network topology of this process . a data processing device is illustrated as a laptop computer . the data processing device 20 has its own conventional display device 25 but is also connected to a number of neds 21 , 22 , 23 . as shown each ned 21 , 22 , 23 has its own dedicated connection to the host . alternatively , the neds 21 , 22 , 23 can be simply plugged into the same network as the machine , or into another network to which it has access , and an association is made in software between those neds 21 , 22 , 23 and the particular computer . software or hardware on the data processing device 20 may make the extra neds 21 , 22 , 23 appear to be part of the same workspace shown on the main screen , typically by emulating a graphics card or driver software in the manner described in co - pending us patent application with attorney docket number pjf01808us , so that programs running on the data processing device 20 are unaware that their output is being displayed on a ned 21 , 22 , 23 . in a typical scenario , windows on the conventional screen 25 can be moved across to the ned 21 , 22 , 23 simply by dragging them off one side of the main display . a simple user interface would generally be provided to enable users to control which neds 21 , 22 , 23 were part of this extended workspace , the geometric relationship between them and any conventional displays , and other aspects of the system . a further use of the address - based protocol of the present invention is in the process of adding multiple screens which aren &# 39 ; t intended to be part of the workspace of a computer . for example , a ned which displays a slide show in a shop window is only visible from the outside of the building . these displays may also be at a greater distance from the data processing device than would be easily possible with conventional display - driving mechanisms . for whatever reason , interacting with the ned as if it were simply part of the main display may not be ideal . in these cases , software is written or modified to be compatible with neds and to drive one or more of them explicitly . a typical use might be the control of multiple displays on a railway platform for informational and / or advertising purposes . the host machine may also have some displays running conventional desktop applications , but this is not necessary , and indeed it may not normally have a ‘ user ’ at all in the conventional sense . neds may also be driven by consumer electronics devices such as central heating controllers , games machines or voicemail systems . again , the use of the address - based protocol of the present invention increases the efficiency of the system . fig3 shows a network topology in which a single data processing device 30 is connected over a general purpose data network 32 to a plurality of neds 31 . the illustrated data processing device 30 does not have its own conventional display device . fig4 shows a more complex network arrangement including other network devices such as a pc 40 including keyboard and mouse , a server 41 and a laptop 42 and neds 43 . a mouse 44 is also shown connected to one of the display devices 43 . any number of devices may be added to the network 45 and may be dedicated to particular tasks such as a display for displaying the time , or a server for providing network management . the neds 43 may support a keyboard and pointer , or other input and output devices , whose data is fed back to the driving machine . each of these added peripherals will have its own network address . many of these terminals may be connected to one machine . again , this system benefits from increased efficiency if it adopts the address - based protocol of the present invention . fig5 illustrates the direct transmission of an update packet 102 of graphical data to an address 122 in display memory 120 of an display device in accordance with the present invention . the data processing device , server 101 , transmits the update packet 102 across a network 2 to a display device 103 , 120 , 105 . the update packet 102 is received at receiver / decoder 103 where the address field of the packet is interpreted as a corresponding address in display memory space 120 . the packet &# 39 ; s data payload is written by the decoder 103 to a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 121 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 105 . this address - based operation corresponds to the execution of a raw command in the case of an ned . fig6 illustrates transmission of a move packet 202 of graphical data to a display device 203 , 220 , 205 . the move packet 202 directs receiver / decoder 203 to take the pre - existing contents at a first address 222 of display memory 220 and to copy / move the contents to a second address 223 in the display memory 220 . in the illustrated example , the second address 223 is in a portion of memory corresponding to the current display 221 , thereby updating the signal that will be displayed on the display screen 205 . this operation corresponds to the execution of a copy command in the case of an ned . although not illustrated , the system of the invention may perform other address - based operations , in addition to the copy / move and update operations . examples of other operations include : a “ merge ” operation , where source data and destination data is combined using various basic operations ( e . g . standard boolean logic operations , multiplicative operations , interpolative operations , or masking operations ); and a “ fill ” operation , in which a block of memory may be filled with a single colour ( this is a special case of the rle command ). the present invention can be used to improve the simplicity and efficiency of many remote graphics applications , and is not limited to use in the specific implementations described above .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
f6ed4540a96e718c0bb11ece83ee646904ee3e75f3e2fab5b7b885c2dfc0689e
0.016357
0.138672
0.000149
0.075684
0.01001
0.109863
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.172852
0.010681
0.014038
0.000019
0.114258
0.01001
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.255859
0.009705
0.006683
0.00103
0.306641
0.025146
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.172852
0.042725
0.014038
0.018799
0.114258
0.067383
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
Should this patent be classified under 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.172852
0.000645
0.014038
0.000028
0.114258
0.006104
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.263672
0.106934
0.006683
0.03418
0.306641
0.129883
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.255859
0.002121
0.006683
0.002548
0.306641
0.125
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Should this patent be classified under 'Electricity'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.212891
0.119141
0.0065
0.024048
0.18457
0.106934
null
referring now to the drawings , and more particularly to fig1 ( a ), there is depicted a novel resistive structure 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 10 is formed in a trough 11 , for example , formed in a substrate ( not shown ) having a layer of dielectric material conforming to the base and sidewalls . the trough structure 11 comprises a bottom portion of dielectric material 12 a and two parallel sidewall formations 12 b , 12 c of dielectric material . examples of insulative dielectric materials for the portions 12 a - 12 c include , but are not limited to : low - k materials , silk ®, an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process such as cvd , pecvd , chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . thus , the dielectric material may be comprised of sin , sio 2 , a polyimide polymer , a siloxane polymer , a silsesquioxane polymer , diamond - like carbon materials , fluorinated diamond - like carbon materials and the like including combinations and multilayers thereof . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( a ), resistive elements are formed within the trough structure 11 by utilizing a deposition process such as , for example , sputtering , plating , evaporation , chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), chemical solution deposition , atomic layer deposition and other like deposition processes . the first resistor material 15 typically has a thickness , after deposition , of from about 50 to about 1000 å , with a thickness of from about 50 to about 500 å being more preferred and includes an outer conductor portion including lateral conductive film 115 a and two parallel vertical formations 15 b , 15 c of conductive material . the resistive structure further comprises an inner conductive portion 16 . the outer and inner conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c and 16 preferably comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn . in this structure , refractory metal films are ideal because of the high melting temperature , however , the material chosen may also be chosen for the tcr values . the conductive material forming outer conductor portions 15 a , 15 b , 15 c has a first sheet resistance value and a first tcr value and , the conductive material forming inner conductor portions 16 may have a second sheet resistance value and a second tcr value . the tcr values may be positive or negative depending on the type of resistor material used , and the sheet resistance is also dependent on the type of material used as well as its length and area . as shown in fig1 , the resistive structure 10 may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 19 by a conducting via 18 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), the via connects all conductive materials of the resistive element 10 . with respect to the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( b ), the thin film resistor 20 includes alternating conductive and insulating films in a trough configuration by repeating resistor material deposition and insulating material formation steps . in the structure depicted in fig1 ( b ), a plurality of alternating refractory metal films 25 a , b , c in trough configuration having lateral and vertical formations and alternating insulator films 22 a , b , c formed between the conductive layers is shown . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 29 by a conducting via 28 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 25 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductors in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in this structure , the plurality of film types may be chosen to have different thicknesses and widths to provide a desired matching of current carrying capability and tcr values . the insulator films and materials can also be chosen to provide the adhesion , thermal and mechanical desired features . in an alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 30 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( c ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( c ), the conductor layers 35 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations each comprise a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values , and designed to achieve a net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( c ), alternating insulator films 32 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer being the same material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process , including low - k materials and silk ®. the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 39 by a conducting via 38 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 35 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . in another alternate embodiment , a resistive structure 40 depicted in the cross - section view of fig1 ( d ) includes a structure similar to that depicted in fig1 ( b ) comprising alternating conductive and insulative films in a trough configuration . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 ( d ), the conductor layers 45 a , b , c having lateral and vertical formations with each layer comprising a different material , e . g ., having different tcr values capable of being designed to achieve a desired net tcr value , e . g ., zero . in the resistive structure of fig1 ( d ), alternating insulator films 42 a , b , c are formed between the conductive layers with each layer comprising a different material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the alternating conductive layers include a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . as mentioned , this resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 49 by a conducting via 48 which is electrically connected to each of the conductor layers 45 a , b , c . it is understood that the via may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the trough to the adjacent wire level in the achievement of a desired design parameter , e . g ., resistance . a methodology 100 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( a )- 1 ( d ) is shown in fig3 which includes a first step 102 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 105 of implementing a conventional photolithographic technique for etching ( e . g ., reactive ion etching ) the trough structure , as depicted , and cleaning it . then , as next depicted at step 110 , a resistor film may then be deposited using an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art . additionally , alternate dielectric levels may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . then , as depicted at step 120 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 125 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig1 ( b )- 1 ( d ), due to the resistive nature of many of the refractory metals , a resistor film thickness may be chosen to provide lateral resistor ballasting across the resistor film . the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the material exhibits a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution . by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . in another embodiment of the invention , depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( a ), there is shown a resistive structure 50 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 50 is a planar stack of conductive layers 55 a , b , c and insulating layers 52 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 50 of fig2 ( a ), the alternating conductive films are of the same material and may comprise a resistive material including but not limited to : ta , tan , ti , tin , w , wn or other refractory metal films . further , the alternating insulating films are of the same material and may comprise a dielectric material including , but not limited to : an oxide , nitride , oxynitride or any combination thereof including multilayers , porous or non - porous inorganic and / or organic dielectrics formed by a deposition process . the resistive element may be formed as part of an interlevel circuit or comprise part of an interconnect structure as shown connected to another wire level 59 by one or more conducting vias 58 a , b , c which electrically connects each conductor layer 55 a , b , c to the adjacent wire level . it is understood that the vias may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 50 to the adjacent wire level 59 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( b ), there is shown a resistive structure 60 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 60 is a planar stack of conductive layers 65 a , b , c and insulating layers 62 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 60 of fig2 ( b ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a different conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise the same dielectric material . as in the other embodiments depicted herein , vias 68 a , b , c , may alternately connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 60 to the adjacent wire level 69 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . in another embodiment depicted in the cross - section view of fig2 ( c ), there is shown a resistive structure 70 including multiple alternating conductive and insulating layers . in this embodiment , the resistive structure 70 is a planar stack of conductive layers 75 a , b , c and insulating layers 72 a , b , c , d , for example . in the resistive structure 70 of fig2 ( c ), the alternating conductive films each comprise a same conductive material and each alternating insulating film may comprise a different dielectric material . the vias 78 a , b , c may connect some or all of the conductor layers of the multi - layer planar resistive structure 70 to an adjacent wire level 79 in the achievement of a desired design parameter . a methodology 200 for forming the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ) include a first step 202 of depositing a first interlevel dielectric layer , and , a further step 205 of implementing an atomic layer deposition technique known in the art depositing a resistor film . next at step 210 , using convention photolithographic techniques , the resistor layer is then etched and stripped at designed locations to accommodate the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 220 , a further interlevel dielectric level may be deposited with alternating resistor films within the trough structure . these steps may be repeated to form the alternating conductive and insulating structures with the formed via structures . then , as depicted at step 230 , a chemical mechanical polish ( cmp ) technique is used to planarize and clean the structure . as shown in further step 235 , a top metal wire structure is deposited and etched with via fill . known single or dual damascene techniques may be employed . it should be understood that , in each of the resistive structures depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( c ), the lateral resistor ballasting is established if the conductive materials exhibit a lateral resistance of greater than 10 to 50 ohms . lateral ballasting can provide lower peak current and distributes the current and thermal stress at the insulator sidewalls . at high frequencies , the skin depth alters the current distribution . however , using thin films that are resistive and wide prevents redistribution of current . vertical ballasting is additionally provided by the presence of insulator films between the conductive films . the vertical ballasting is achieved since the current does not flow between the films . to avoid skin effect vertical redistribution , the insulators serve as a means of preventing vertical current redistribution , i . e ., serves as a means for limiting current flow perpendicular to the insulator film surfaces . further , by using resistive materials of different tcr values , the tcr value of the net resistor element can be tuned . the magnitude of the different contributions is preferably balanced by both material and width or thickness contributions to the net resistor element . moreover , to control the temperature rise in the resistor , various materials can be used to influence the thermal resistance and thermal capacitance . the net temperature rise is a function of the distance from the substrate ( what metal level the resistor is on ), the insulating layer type and thickness . for instance , it is desired that the insulator film layers are thinner than the adjacent conductive layers so that the thermal conductivity difference and temperature gradient , from one conductor to another , is reduced or neglible . this is desirable because the more uniform the temperature is across the physical structure the less temperature gradient and hence , less thermal stress which can cause cracking . by making thin dielectric layers , the thermal gradient is very small laterally thus maintaining temperature uniformity because of the self - ballasting of the film . furthermore , it is desired that the insulator layers are uniform is undesirable because , difference in thickness may contribute to bad modeling in the modeling techniques described hereinafter . the present invention additionally provides for a computer aided design ( cad ) methodology and structure for providing design , verification and checking of high current characteristics and esd robustness of a resistor element in an analog , digital , and rf circuits , system - on - a - chip environment in a design environment which utilizes parameterized cells . that is , a cad strategy is implemented that provides design flexibility , rf characterization and esd robustness of the resistor element . this resistor element may be constructed in a primitive or hierarchical “ parameterized ” cell , hereinafter referred to as a “ p - cell ”, which may be constructed into a higher level resistor element . this resistor element may further be integrated into a hierarchical structure that includes other elements which do not necessarily include resistor elements , and becomes a component within the hierarchical structure of the network . these resistor elements may be the lowest order p - cells and capable of rf and dc characterization . high current analysis , esd verification , dc characterization , schematics and lvs ( logical verification to schematic ) are completed on the resistor element . elements that may be integrated into a hierarchical network may comprise diode , bipolar and mosfet hierarchical cells . the parameterized cells , or “ p - cells ”, may be constructed in a commercially available cad software environment such as cadence ®-( cadence design systems , inc ., san jose , calif . ), e . g ., in the form of a kit . fig5 illustrates a cad design tool concept whereby a computer 300 is implemented that interacts with graphical generator and schematic generator processing sub - systems 305 , 310 , respectively . these graphical and schematic generator sub - systems interact with each other to aid in the generation of resistor p - cells , e . g ., including the resistor structures as described herein . for instance , the graphical generator 305 generates a physical layout of a resistor structure and the schematic generator 310 will generate a schematic view of the structure that is suitable for specification in a designed circuit . all designs generated by the system are subject to a verification checking sub - system 320 to verify design integrity and ensure no technology rules are violated . thus , for instance , as shown in detail in fig6 , via a user interface , a resistor p - cell 325 is designed via the graphical and schematic design sub - systems 305 , 310 and the design system and the verification checking sub - system 320 will implement design checking rules , e . g ., check the physical layout of the p - cell and ensure that it conforms to physical layout rules or violates any technology rules , for example . fig7 depicts an implementation of the design system of the present invention implemented in cadence . via the graphical user interface ( gui ) 330 of computer device 300 , create generator module 340 and placement generator module 345 are implemented for designing the resistor p - cell elements and generating circuits employing the resistor p - cells , respectively . in the design of the resistor p - cell element , several views are possible including a layout ( graphical ) view , a schematic view and / or a symbol view which enables generation of a symbol , for instance , having associated stored physical information . fig8 ( a ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell graphical design system 350 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( a ), functionality provided via graphical generator 305 is invoked to design graphic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor p - cell 350 . p - cell elements 351 , 352 may be combined and merged by a compile function to generate a hierarchical graphical p - cell 360 , or a higher order element . thus , for instance , a second order resistor element may be generated inheriting parameters of a lower p - cell ( e . g . a single order ) resistor element . the same analysis is applicable for the schematic generation sub - system . fig8 ( b ) depicts conceptually , the p - cell schematic design system 370 according to the invention . as shown in fig8 ( b ), functionality provided via schematic generator 310 is invoked to design schematic p - cells , e . g ., a resistor circuit element p - cell 370 . circuit p - cell elements 371 , 372 may be combined and merged by the compile function 355 to generate a hierarchical schematic p - cell , or a higher order circuit element 365 . the p - cells 360 , 365 are hierarchical and built from device primitives which have been rf characterized and modeled . without the need for additional rf characterization , the design kit development cycle is compressed . auto - generation also allows for drc ( design rule checking ) correct layouts and lvs correct circuits . thus , as exemplified in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ), resistor p - cells are “ growable ” elements such that they can form repetition groups of an underlying p - cell element to accommodate the design parameters . that is , they can be changed in physical size based on the criteria autogenerated . the p - cells fix some variables , and pass some variables to higher order p - cell circuits through inheritance . for example , from a base resistor p - cell 350 , there can be constructed a plurality of p - cells 351 , 352 where each conductive layer is a p - cell and the composite resistor element 360 is a hierarchical p - cell comprising of the plurality of conductive films such as described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 . the plurality of films can be constructed within a given primitive p - cell . as an example of the schematic methodology , fig9 ( a ) depicts an exemplary schematic editing graphical unit interface ( gui ) 330 , invoking functionality for constructing a transistor p - cell 331 , a capacitor p - cell 332 , or a resistor p - cell 335 or , for invoking an ams ( analog mixed signal ) utility choice 336 . for example , upon selection of the resistor p - cell 335 , a resistor pull - down menu 380 is displayed providing design options including : create a resistor element choice 381 , create and place a resistor element choice 382 , place an existing resistor element choice 383 , and place a resistor schematic choice 384 . in the cad design system aspect of the invention , the schematic p - cell is generated by the input variables to account for the inherited parameters input values . to retain resistor circuit variability , a design flow has been built around the schematic p - cell . as an example , the selection of “ create a resistor element ” function 381 initiates creation of a schematic for a parameterized resistor cell ( resistor p - cell ). to generate the electrical schematic , via the pull - down menu 390 depicted in fig9 ( b ), the design panel requests the designer to input parameters , such as : tcr 391 , ballasting 392 , esd protection 393 and a net resistance value 394 . other parameters of interest or desired features that may be entered via the gui include , but are not limited to : the width , the length , the net total resistance , the maximum mechanical stress integrity value , the maximum peak temperature thermal integrity value , the mechanical or thermal strain limit , the resistance , the worst case capacitance , the worst case inductance , the q ( quality factor ), the worst case tcr , the high current limit , the worst case esd robustness level ( e . g ., human body model ( hbm )), machine model ( mm ), charged device model ( cdm ), transmission line pulse current ( tlp )), and other design parameters . this implementation and definition is performed via input from the gui to define the parameters . it is understood that other resistor parameters may additionally be integrated with the design system . these input parameters are passed into a procedure that will build a resistor p - cell with the schematic p - cell built according to the input parameters and placed in the designated resistor cell . an instance of the resistor layout p - cell will also be placed in the designated resistor cell . for example , fig9 ( c ) illustrates an example resistor p - cell gui panel showing a built resistor p - cell having attributes including : a resistor cell type 396 , a type of technology 397 , a library name 398 , a resistor value ( e . g . 50 ohms ), a tcr value ( e . g ., 1 %) and an esd value ( e . g ., 4000 v ). in the computer aided design ( cad ) system and methodology , a parameterized cell ( p - cell ) is thus constructed as a primary cell or a hierarchical cell consisting of a plurality of primitive cells to generate the resistor element . the resistor element parameters can be chosen from electrical circuit values , and / or rf features desired . from the electrical schematic , a symbol function can be created representing and containing all the information of the resistor p - cell . in the case of the resistor p - cell , the hierarchical p - cell information is included in a “ translation box ” 400 such as shown in fig1 that include a plurality of input connections 402 and output connections 404 that may be later specified for connection in a circuit to achieve a certain performance or parameter value , e . g ., a resistance or esd robustness value , when included in a circuit application . for instance , a symbol view 400 , representing the built resistor , may be specified for connection in an rf circuit 500 such as shown in fig1 , for example , by selecting a “ place an resistor circuit ” option ( not shown ) via the gui . generation of the graphical implementation is achievable using the translation box that generates the graphical implementation of the resistor element . the graphical implementation will have the information stored in the translation box and may reconstruct the multi - film resistor design implementing the variable information stored constraints contained in the translation box . the cad design kit of the present invention further enables the automated building of a resistor library by creating and storing both schematic , layout , and symbol views of the p - cell element including associated specified input parameters and physical models . for instance , as electrical and thermal characteristics of a design are additionally influenced by the surrounding insulator films , and “ fill shapes ” placed around the film , in the implementation of the invention , the physical model for evaluation of the electrical and thermal characteristics include algorithms or physical models that characterize the physical structure . these can also be obtained from experimental work and a “ look - up table ” that may be placed in the design system as a gui to assist the user in choosing the parameters of interest . for example , the smith - littau model is used to determine the maximum current and voltage across a resistor element as a function of an applied pulse width or energy . as known to skilled artisans , various models exist that allow quantification of the electrical and thermal failure of the structure . the p - cell may be a gui that allows generation of the fill - shapes to modify the thermal characteristics of the resistor film . the gui may be used also to choose whether the surrounding interlevel dielectric films are high - k or low - k materials . the resistor element design may further allow for “ cheesing ” which is a process where holes are placed in a film to establish mechanical stability of the element . if the user desires the resistor element may be auto - cheesed . this will allow thermal and mechanical stability wherein the design would auto - adjust to the correct size to achieve the other desired parameters . the design system further provides a tunable thermal resistance feature that attempts to satisfy the desired characteristic by material changes , widths , dielectric film spacing , and material types . additionally , it can change the thermal impedance , thermal resistance and thermal capacitance as well as quality factor ( qf ) or q of the resistor by adjusting the electrical capacitance , inductance and other parasitic features . further , according to the invention , a methodology is provided that allows for the auto - generation of the schematic circuit to be placed directly into the design . this procedure is available with a “ place a resistor schematic ” option ( not shown ) via the user gui that enables the designer to auto - generate the circuit and place it in the schematic . since these cells are hierarchical , the primitive devices and auto - wiring are placed by creating an instance of the schematic p - cell and then flattening the element . to maintain the hierarchy during the layout phase of the design , an instance box is placed in the schematic retaining the input parameters and device names and characteristics as properties and the elements are recognized and the primitives are replaced with the hierarchical p - cell . to produce multiple implementations using different inherited parameter variable inputs , different embodiments of the same circuit type may be created by the methodology of the invention . in this process , the schematic is renamed to be able to produce multiple implementations in a common chip or design ; the renaming process allows for the design system to distinguish multiple cell views to be present in a common design . when the inherited parameters are defined , the circuit schematic is generated according to the selected variables . for example , substrate , ground and pin connections are established for the system to identify the connectivity of the circuit . the design system may additionally auto - generate the layout from the electrical schematic which will appear as equivalent to the previously discussed graphical implementation . the physical layout of the resistors circuits is implemented with p - cells using existing primitives in the reference library . the circuit topology is formed within the p - cell including wiring such that all parasitics may be accounted for . it should be understood that the design system and methodology permits for change of circuit topology as well as structure size of the resistor structure in an automated fashion . layout and circuit schematics are auto - generated with the user varying the number of elements in the circuit . the circuit topology automation allows for the customer to auto - generate new resistor elements without additional design work . interconnects and wiring to and between the resistor elements are also auto - generated . the resistor elements described herein with respect to fig1 and 2 and embodied as a hierarchical parameterized cell designed via the cad tool kit of the invention , may thus be designed with the following achievable design objectives including , but not limited to : 1 ) verification of the connection between a first and second element by verifying and checking electrical connectivity wherein the first element is a p - cell and the second element is a p - cell ; 2 ) verification of the width requirements to maintain high current and esd robustness to a minimum level ; 3 ) verify that based on the high current or esd robustness of the esd network that the resistor width and via number is such to avoid electrical interconnect failure prior to the esd network failure ; 4 ) allow for parallel resistors whose cross section can be maintained and evaluated as a set of parallel resistors ; 5 ) allow for “ resistor ballasting ” by dividing into a plurality or array of resistors ; 6 ) allow for calculation of the high current robustness of the resistor based on pulse width , surrounding insulator materials ( e . g . sio 2 or low k materials ), metal level and distance from the substrate ( thermal resistance based on the metal level or underlying structures ; 7 ) account for surrounding fill shapes around the resistor p - cell ; and , 8 ) account and adjust for “ cheesing ” ( removal of interconnect material inside the interconnect ) of the resistor element . various modifications may be made to the structures of the invention as set forth above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described and claimed . various aspects of the embodiments described above may be combined and / or modified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preferred 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 that should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
Should this patent be classified under 'Electricity'?
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
b682272c9b21a2e891d3505c0e8fff513ad5eb5c2c140ea79892cf75986ddd38
0.212891
0.142578
0.007813
0.06543
0.18457
0.063477
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.081543
0.012817
0.031128
0.000169
0.114258
0.017456
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.115723
0.115723
0.031128
0.031128
0.120117
0.040283
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.198242
0.000103
0.092773
0.00002
0.211914
0.000315
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.115723
0.00004
0.031128
0.000028
0.115723
0.001137
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Should this patent be classified under 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.15625
0.009155
0.025146
0.000404
0.131836
0.026367
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Should this patent be classified under 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.161133
0.000103
0.025146
0.000018
0.131836
0.000246
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.115723
0.069336
0.031128
0.012817
0.115723
0.090332
null
the invention will be illustratively described in terms of the mpeg - 4 file format . mpeg - 4 files use &# 34 ;. mp4 &# 34 ; as the format - identifying extension . in general terms , all av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file which are related to a session which processes or presents an audiovisual scene , and conforming to mpeg - 4 , reside in one or more such files . a session does not need to be contained in only one file under mpeg - 4 . rather , a set of files can be used to form a complete session , with one of them acting as the master file . other objects ( referred to as &# 34 ; logical objects &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; remote objects &# 34 ;) can be referenced by the master ( or other ) files using universal resource locator calls ( urls , known in the art ). these objects can be physically located in a different file on the same file storage system , or in a remote file system such as an internet server . an overview of the invention is shown in fig1 for a first illustrative embodiment relating to a system using stored files , and fig2 for a second illustrative embodiment relating to a system using streaming files . in a streaming implementation , the user views incoming audiovisual portions as they arrive , which may be temporarily stored in electronic memory such as ram or equivalent memory , but the audiovisual data is not necessarily assembled into a fixed file . in either case , an mpeg - 4 file 100 consists of a file header 20 containing global information about the av objects contained within it , followed by an arbitrary number of segments 30 containing the av objects within al pdus 60 and bifs data consistent with the mpeg - 4 standard known in the art . av objects 40 can represent textual , graphical , video , audio or other information . in terms of the al pdu , bifs and related data structures under mpeg - 4 , that standard uses an object - based approach . individual components of a scene are coded as independent objects ( e . g . arbitrarily shaped visual objects , or separately coded sounds ). the audiovisual objects are transmitted to a receiving terminal along with scene description information , which defines how the objects should be positioned in space and time , in order to construct the scene to be presented to a user . the scene description follows a tree structured approach , similar to the virtual reality modeling language ( vrml ) known in the art . the encoding of such scene description information is more fully defined in part 1 of the official iso mpeg - 4 specification ( mpeg - 4 systems ), known in the art . bifs information is transmitted in its own elementary stream , with its own time and clock stamp information to ensure proper coordination of events at the receiving terminal . in terms of the adaptation layer ( al ) in the mpeg - 4 environment , since mpeg - 4 follows an object - based architecture , several elementary streams may be associated with a particular program ( av presentation ). each elementary stream is composed of access units ( aus ). an access unit can correspond , for example , to a frame of video , or a small set of samples in an audio stream . in general , aus are assumed to be distinct presentation units . in order to provide a uniform way of describing important information about the aus carried in each elementary stream ( clock reference , time stamps , whether a particular au is a random access point , etc .) an adaptation layer is used to encapsulate all aus . the al is a simple ( configurable ) header structure which allows access to such information without parsing of the actual underlying encoded media data . the al is positioned hierarchically about the option flexmux and directly below the coding layer . as illustrated in fig1 in a storage embodiment the al pdus 60 are interspersed within file segments 30 . each file segment 30 contains a header 70 describing the al pdus 60 located within that file segment 30 . the mpeg - 4 file 100 thus contains a set of al pdus 60 multiplexed and indexed such that random access of individual objects ( encapsulated in the al pdus ) is possible , at a level of abstraction higher than the physical storage medium that the objects are stored in . this decoupling of audiovisual objects from the physical storage allows highly flexible and general manipulation of these data types . to stream the content of a file for playback , such as from a web server to an internet client , the index information ( physical object table 80 and logical object table 90 ) is removed and al pdus 60 are prepared to be delivered over a channel . a streaming embodiment of the invention is generally illustrated in fig2 . in terms of the streaming environment under mpeg - 4 , previous versions of mpeg specification provided an explicit definition of how individual elementary streams are to be multiplexed together for transmission as a single bitstream . since mpeg - 4 is intended to be used in a variety of communication environments ( from internet connections to native atm , or even mobile ), mpeg - 4 does mandate a particular structure or mechanism for multiplexing . instead , it assumes a generic model for a transport multiplexer , referred to as a transmux . for transport facilities that do not conform to that model ( e . g . data transmission using the gsm digital cellular telephony standard ), mpeg - 4 provides the definition of a simple and flexible multiplexer referred to as a flexmux . its use , however , is entirely optional . the flexmux provides a simple multiplexing facility by allowing elementary streams to populate channels within a flexmux . it also allows multiple media to share a flexmux pdu , which is useful for low delay and / or low - bandwidth applications . as illustrated in fig2 in streaming implementation the invention builds an index layer 110 on top of the access unit sub - layer 130 of the flex mux layer 130 to index the al pdus 60 by object number . in the absence of the indexing information contained in index layer 110 , random access of streaming data becomes practically impossible . a file segment 30 can contain part of an al pdu 60 , an entire al pdu 60 , or even more than one al pdu 60 . as illustrated in both fig1 and 2 , in terms of general formatting the first 5 bytes of the file header 20 contain the characters &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; &# 34 ; p &# 34 ; &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; 4 &# 34 ;. the next byte indicates the version number of the file format . the next byte of the file header 20 contains the file type definition ( ftd ) field 140 . ftd field 140 describes the contents of the file according to the following definition . bit 1 : if set indicates that there are physical av objects present in the stream . bit 2 : if set indicates that there are logical av objects present in the stream . ( always 0 in a streaming file ), to be accessed using url calls to remote mpeg - 4 files . bit 3 : always 0 for a stored file . in a streaming file , if this bit is set it indicates that the one al pdu 30 is contained in one transport pdu 150 ( this corresponds to a simple mode of operation of the flexmux ). in such cases , access to random objects is possible by accessing transport pdus 150 . ( bit 3 also called the random access flag ). bit 3 of the ftd field 140 , if set , indicates that the transport pdu 150 contains data that belong to one al pdu 60 . if the random access flag is set , the av object id field 170 in the transport pdu table 160 indicates the elementary stream id ( esid ) of the av object contained in the transport pdu 150 . otherwise , the av object id field 170 indicates the packet number in the current segment . this is because if the transport pdu 150 contains multiple av object data ( random access flag not set ), it cannot be directly used for random access and also cannot be associated with a single esid . following the file type field 180 is a 1 byte extension indicator ( followed by possible extension data ), and a 1 byte code describing the profile / level of the entire stream . this allows a decoder to determine if it is capable of handling the data in the file . after the file profile field 190 is the bifs data 50 including object ids . the bifs data 50 is a 2 - byte field that identifies the bifs pdus in the file . object ids are used to uniquely identify the av objects encapsulated in al pdus 60 , including the bifs data . the next portion is the physical object table 80 , which catalogs a description of all the objects in the file that are physically present or contained in the file . the file header 20 next contains a logical object table 90 , which catalogs the location of all file objects that are not physically present in the file , but are referenced via urls to mpeg - 4 compliant files illustratively located on the internet . the urls are coded as strings ( without a terminating null &# 34 ;\ 0 &# 34 ; character ), prepended by their length ( using 8 bits ). while illustrated in fig1 the physical object table 80 is optional . physical object table 80 is necessary only when local media access is to be performed , and when present it is contained in the file header 20 . physical object table 80 consists of a 2 byte av object count 160 , indicating the number of av objects in the file , followed by a sequence of 2 byte av object ids 170 and 1 - byte profile fields 460 containing profile / level descriptions for each av object present in the file . each av object description also contains 8 additional bytes in av object offset 470 to indicate the offset ( from the beginning of the file ) to the segment in which the av object or bifs information first occurs in the stream . similarly , the logical object table 90 is only necessary for a stored file implementation , and is not part of a streaming file implementation . when present , the logical object table 90 is also contained in the file header 20 . the logical object table 90 consists of a 2 byte av object count 480 indicating the av objects that are part of the session , but not physically present in the mpeg file 100 . the count data is followed by a 2 byte av object id 170 ( also known as the aforementioned elementary stream id ) and a 1 byte url length field 490 indicating object location string length , and an av object url 500 the string indicating the location ( an internet universal resource locator , or url familiar to persons skilled in the art ) of each av object in the table . the file pointed to by the url is also in mpeg - 4 file format . ( it is up to the creator of the file content to ensure that the id used exists in the remote file and is not duplicated in the local file ). the incorporation of logical objects in the invention facilitates the use of a set of distributed files to store an assembled mpeg - 4 presentation . the mpeg file 100 comprises one or more file segments 30 , uniquely identified by a 32 - bit start code ( 0 × 000001b9 ). a special code denotes the end of the file ( 0 × 000001ff ). as illustrated in fig1 following a segment start code 510 and segment size field 520 is an al pdu table 190 , which contains a 2 - byte count field 410 , indicating how many al pdus 60 are contained in the given file segment 30 . al pdu table 190 also contains a sequence of av object ids 420 , al pdu offset 430 , and al pdu continuity field 440 and al pdu size field 450 . for each al pdu , an 8 - byte structure is used to describe the object contained . the first 2 bytes are the av object id 420 , and the next 4 bytes indicate the al pdu offset 430 to the starting point of that al pdu in the segment 30 . the next two bits are the al pdu continuity field 440 , representing a &# 34 ; continuity flag &# 34 ;, and have the following meaning : 01 : 1 st segment of a split pdu ; next segment follows ; look in the segment tables 11 : intermediate segment of a split pdu ; look in the pdu table to locate the next pdu segment . the remaining 14 bits are the al pdu size field 450 giving the size ( in bytes ) of the part of the al pdu 60 contained therein . following the al table there is a 4 - byte segment size field that denotes the number of bytes until the beginning of the next segment start code or end - of - data code . the stored format of the first illustrative embodiment of the invention for mpeg - 4 files supports random accessing of av objects from local media . accessing an av object at random by object number involves looking up the al pdu table 190 of a file segment 30 for the object id . if the id is found , the corresponding al pdu 60 is retrieved . since an access unit can span more than one al pdu 60 , it is possible that the requested object is encapsulated in more than one al pdu 60 . so to retrieve all the al pdus 60 that constitute the requested object , all the al pdus 60 with the requested object id are examined and retrieved until an al pdu 60 with the first bit set is found . the first bit of an al pdu 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit . if the id is not found , the al pdu table 190 in the next segment is examined . all al pdu 60 segments are listed in the al pdu table 190 . this also allows more than one object ( instance ) with the same id to be present in the same segment . it is assumed that al pdus 60 of the same object id are placed in the file in their natural time ( or playout ) order . generally similar structures are presented in the second illustrative embodiment shown in fig2 but reflecting streamed rather than stored access , including mux pdu table 530 containing a corresponding mux pdu count 540 , mux pdu offset 550 , mux pdu table 560 and mux pdu size field 570 . in terms of delivery of data encapsulated according to the invention , the av objects stored in an mpeg - 4 file 100 may be delivered over a network such as the internet , cellular data or other networks for streaming data , or accessed from a local storage device for playback from mass storage . the additional headers added to facilitate random access are removed before a file can be played back . fig3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an mpeg - 4 file 100 for playback according to the invention . in the illustrated apparatus , mpeg - 4 files 100 are stored on a storage media , such as a hard disk or cd rom , which is connected to a file format interface 200 capable of programmed control of audiovisual information , including the processing flow illustrated in fig4 . the file format interface 200 is connected to a streaming file channel 210 , and to an editable file channel 220 . streaming file channel 210 communicates flex mux pdus to trans mux 250 , which is in turn connected to data communications network 260 . data communications network 260 is in turn connected to an audiovisual terminal 270 , which receives the streamed audiovisual data . file format interface 200 is also connected to flex mux 230 and to a local audiovisual terminal 240 by way of editable file channel 220 . the apparatus illustrated in fig3 can therefore operate on streamed audiovisual data at the networked audiovisual terminal 270 , or operate on mass - stored audiovisual data at the local audiovisual terminal 240 . the invention illustratively uses a file format specified as limited to 64k local objects and 64k remote objects . furthermore , file segments 30 are limited to a size of 4 gb . the offsets to individual objects in the physical and logical object tables limit the total size of the file to a 64 - bit address space . using all of these techniques and structures , the system , method and medium of the invention enables new applications that make use of a variety of random access av features . types of client applications foreseen by the inventors include video and audio conferencing , video gaming and other interactive entertainment . the file format associated with the invention can be used to arrange audiovisual data efficiently on a storage device such as a dvd , cd rom , hard disk or other devices . necessary control structures can be realized in hardware as well as software , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art , and the design of software or devices that utilize the file format will depend on particular applications . fig4 illustrates a schematic diagram of another logical apparatus using the file format specification to access units from an mpeg - 4 file 100 according to the invention . this is an illustrative embodiment of an mpeg - 4 apparatus comprising cpu 380 , which may for example be a general or special purpose microprocessor , electronic memory 390 , associated bus connections and other components , as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in this illustrative embodiment the cpu 380 posts requests to random objects by specifying the object id ( elementary stream id ). other component blocks in fig4 are depicted logically , and may correspond to software or hardware modules according to design needs , and in which blocks could be combined , as will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art . in the diagram of fig4 cpu 380 accesses storage device 280 ( such as a hard drive ) to cause a read operation to be performed on an mpeg - 4 file at module 290 , and a next segment header is read at module 300 . the read operation module 290 accesses an object table 370 for translation purposes , and communicates extracted audiovisual data to mpeg - 4 player 360 , which may comprise a video buffer , screen , audio channels and related output devices . id check module 330 checks for an id in the segment header , transmitting the id to the get object id module 320 , or if not present moving back to next segment module 300 . after mpeg - 4 player 360 has finished presenting the current audiovisual data , it transmits a request through request module 340 for the next al pdu ( id ), or may request a random al pdu ( id ) through module 350 , which in turn communicates that information to the id check module 310 . as noted above , the way in which av objects are accessed from a file depends on the intended application and hence the way the client applications are designed . one significant purpose of the invention is to provide underlying universal support for easy access of individual av objects from any storage device . of course , any client application employing the invention must have a module that retrieves av objects from a file . the functionality of this front - end component includes retrieving av objects by their esid , retrieving the composition information , retrieving the n th occurrence of an object in the elementary stream . the reader will parse the segment headers for the presence of an object in that segment . if the object is not present in the segment , it scans the next segment . this is repeated until the desired object is found or the end of the file marker is reached . the foregoing description of the system , method and medium for processing audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative , and variations in construction and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art . the scope of the invention is there intended to be limited only by the following claims .
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
0.25
fa52a5dbf1c358b8b380275ee48d08bd4bda9ec68461bb230b9ea431bb0889a8
0.081543
0.001137
0.031128
0.000043
0.114258
0.000778
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.026733
0.003708
0.048096
0.000246
0.078125
0.002121
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.057373
0.047363
0.02002
0.021606
0.174805
0.077148
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.027588
0.034668
0.048096
0.002975
0.081543
0.017456
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.057373
0.000999
0.02063
0.000005
0.174805
0.007111
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Is 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology' the correct technical category for the patent?
Should this patent be classified under 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.027222
0.002975
0.052734
0.000668
0.081543
0.00885
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.055908
0.016357
0.02063
0.00193
0.174805
0.026001
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.098145
0.012817
0.296875
0.000854
0.206055
0.013611
null
a low pressure ( 50 to 180 bar or 80 to 180 bar or 120 to 180 bar or 80 to 120 bar ) organics extrusion press ( biorex ) recovers organics from mixed solid waste streams by applying pressure to solid waste infeed placed in an extrusion chamber in order to extrude readily digestible putrescible organics through a perforated plate . a commercial press such as a press sold by vm press or a press as shown in fig1 may be used or adapted . the extruded organics are termed “ wet fraction ” and the material that remains in the extrusion chamber is termed “ dry fraction ”. the wet fraction can be converted to renewable natural gas , electricity , and fertilizer through anaerobic digestion or composting . the dry fraction can be landfilled , recycled , or further processed to a renewable solid fuel . the infeed material can include wet commercial waste , commercial and industrial waste ( c & amp ; i ), and source separated organics ( sso ). varying processes for pre - sorting are possible , and in many cases encouraged , to remove large objects if present in the waste stream , that could obstruct the extrusion press liberate waste from bags , recovery recyclable materials , homogenize the waste stream , and concentrate organics . other pressing processes have been described for mixed municipal solid waste , where higher pressures ( i . e . 150 to 220 bar ) are applied to extract organics . in msw approximately 30 to 50 % of the material fed to the press is recovered as wet fraction for anaerobic digestion . pressures in excess of 150 bar are used to extract organics form these waste streams . in sso and c & amp ; i waste the wet fraction can be 70 to 90 or 95 %, meaning that there are less rejects and lower pressure is required to recover the organics . after sso or c & amp ; i waste extrusion at low pressure , the majority of the organics present in the incoming waste are removed as wet fraction , yet , a minority fraction of organics remain in the dry fraction . the quantity of residual organics remaining in the dry fraction depends on a number of variables including , in part , the waste composition , the bulk density of the infeed , the dimensions and geometry of the extrusion chamber , and the pressure applied to the infeed . generally , high pressure extrusion removes a larger fraction of organics from the infeed than lower pressure extrusion . for example , the low pressure extrusion is optimal for feedstocks with high fractions of food or organic waste such as sso and packaged food waste ; whereas , high pressure extrusion is optimal for dense waste streams with higher non - organic or non - readily biodegradable fractions such as residential msw or some commercial waste streams . the residual organics remaining in the dry fraction can be recovered through milling and washing . here , the dry fraction is milled under high force shearing , hammering , or pulverizing in order to dislodge material and separate residual organics from the dry fraction . for example , a hammer mill can violently dislodge organics bound to dry fraction and break large organic pieces into small particles and even a slurry . in some cases , the mill requires dilution of the dry fraction to 10 - 20 % total solids content ; the dry fraction is typically generated with 40 - 60 % total solids content . the organics can be recovered separated from the dry fraction by a screen that retains the dry fraction and permits the passage of organics driven by the hammering or other shearing force ( fig2 ). alternatively , the pulverized mixture of organics and dry fraction can pass through the mill and into a screw press that separates the organic slurry and water from the dry fraction through a screen and under relatively low pressure ( fig3 ). in either case , the retained dry fraction is washed to remove organic films and residual organics . the residual organics extracted by the mill and the dry fraction wash water are combined and amended to the bulk flow of wet fraction generated by the extrusion press . the combined flow from organics removed by the mill and the wash water from cleaning the dry fraction is a minority fraction of the bulk flow of wet fraction from the extrusion press ; the combined stream continues downstream to further processing to remove small residual inert contaminants for use in an anaerobic digester or composting . the combined low pressure system may be used to process waste streams with high organic fractions such as sso and c & amp ; i and removes the vast majority of organics larger throughput at a similar treatment level than extrusion or milling alone . in at least some cases , the combined system can achieve near complete removal of organics . a system has the highest capacity unit process upstream , and cascades to one or more lower capacity unit processes for the dry fraction . organics extraction begins with the highest capacity unit process , low pressure extrusion , which removes over 80 % or over 90 % of the organics and generates a small dry fraction . the dry fraction is then introduced into a lower capacity unit process such as a hammer mill , where residual organics are removed . in the configurations described below and shown in fig2 and 3 , sso or c & amp ; i pass through a bag opener or double screw conveyor to liberate the contents of bags and to dislodge material . then , the waste enters a press where low pressure extrusion separates a majority of the organics . dry fraction from the press enters a mill where hammering or vigorous shearing dislodges and pulverizes material . the mill may require dilution of the dry fraction stream . residual organics in the dry fraction can be separated in the mill through perforations in the mill itself ( configuration 1 ), or by a downstream screw press or other separation process ( configuration 2 ). the dry fraction exits either the mill or the screw press as a reject stream where it enters , for example , a drum washer for washing . here trace residual organics are removed . the wash water stream and the organics extracted by the mill or screw press can be combined with the wet fraction generated by the low pressure extrusion press and treated , for example by anaerobic digestion . in a first system and process , as shown in fig2 , dry fraction is milled where organics are extracted through perforations on a plate while hammered , and dry fraction rejects are discharged and polished in a wash to remove residual organics . in a second system and process , as shown in fig3 , dry fraction is milled , and milled slurry is transferred to a screw press or other separation device to extract residual organics from the dry fraction . dry fraction is discharged as press rejects and washed for final removal of trace organics . recovering organics from the dry fraction can increase yield to the anaerobic digester , reduce contamination of landfill with animal by - products , or both , relative to using a press alone .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
9e4612f7b7c6abd26d4952384387de2a029b547126e7969d73d270c54aeade87
0.094238
0.007111
0.296875
0.000169
0.206055
0.001167
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.289063
0.090332
0.144531
0.15625
0.253906
0.158203
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.384766
0.640625
0.098145
0.746094
0.138672
0.785156
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is 'Chemistry; Metallurgy' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.172852
0.021973
0.070801
0.003708
0.094238
0.026733
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Should this patent be classified under 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.21582
0.094238
0.04541
0.632813
0.141602
0.578125
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Should this patent be classified under 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.21582
0.074707
0.04541
0.761719
0.141602
0.431641
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.289063
0.03418
0.144531
0.155273
0.253906
0.109863
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Should this patent be classified under 'Electricity'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.21582
0.233398
0.04541
0.189453
0.141602
0.367188
null
next , an preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig1 shows a block diagram of a network to which the frame transfer method of the present invention can apply . the network shown in fig1 realizes vpn - a to c ( vpn : ( virtual private network , a to c : enterprises a to c ) in the vpn service . the vpn - a to c are connected to one another through a backbone network and a plurality of mans ( metropolitan area network ) 1 to 6 . the vpn - a is configured by site lans ( local area network ) a 1 and a 2 , the vpn - b is configured by site lans b 1 to b 4 , and the vpn - c is configured by site lans c 1 and c 2 respectively . each of the lans is configured by a ce ( customer edge node ) used to connect the lan to a man and one or more terminals t ( t : terminal ). a man used to transfer frames between each lan and the backbone network is configured by an me ( man edge node ) located at the edge and an mc ( man core node ) located at the core of the network . the backbone network connected to the man is configured by pes ( provider edge nodes ) 1 to 3 and pcs ( provider core nodes ) 1 to 3 located at the core . in the backbone network are formed a plurality of tunnel lsps ( lsp : label switching path ). in each of those tunnel lsps , a t - lsp 1 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 1 -& gt ; and pe 2 while a t - lsp 3 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in addition , a t - lsp 2 is formed so as to transfer frames in the direction of pe 1 -& gt ; pc 2 -& gt ; pc 3 -& gt ; pe 3 and a t - lsp 4 is formed so as to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the t - lsp 1 is formed a vc - lsp - b 1 , which is used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 2 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 3 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . and , in the t - lsp 2 are formed a vc - lsp - b 2 used to transfer frames from the lan - b 1 to the lan - b 3 and b 4 , as well as a vc - lsp - b 4 used to transfer frames in the opposite direction . in the tunnel lsp is also formed some other lsps used for communications among the sites of the enterprise a , among the sites of the enterprise c , and between pe 2 and pe 3 , although they are not shown here . when any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 described above is employed for the backbone network , the pe 1 is required to store line numbers , tunnel labels , and vc labels corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 4 to t 11 , as well as line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 3 . concretely , the pe 1 of the backbone network is required to learn and store such transfer information as tunnel labels , vc labels , or line numbers corresponding to the mac addresses of the terminals t 1 to t 11 of all the contracted enterprises . however , the table provided in the pe to store such the transfer information is limited in capacity . the table thus becomes a bottleneck sometimes in each network that employs any of the conventional techniques 3 and 4 , so that it might be impossible to store many contracted enterprises in the table . on the other hand , in any network that employs the frame transfer method of the present invention , the pe of the backbone network is not required to learn such transfer information as output line numbers , tunnel lsps , vc lsps corresponding to the mac addresses . a node located in the upstream of the pe adds information equivalent to such the transfer information to each frame to be transmitted . this added information consists of such information as line , tunnel lsp , and vc lsp used by the pe located at the inlet of the backbone network , as well as the subject frame that stores information of the line number to which the frame is to be transferred by the pe located at the outlet of the backbone network . each pe transfers each frame according to this information . in the frame transfer method of the present invention , each node that stores information corresponding to the mac address set in each frame is located on the edge of the network . therefore it does not need to store so many contracted enterprises . because such the node is just required to store information corresponding to the mac addresses of not so many terminals of each contracted enterprise , the capacity of the table for storing such the information will thus not prevent the number of contracted enterprises from increasing . concretely , when the me 2 transfers a frame to the terminal t 7 of the lan - b 3 , the me 2 instructs the pe 1 to specify lines connected to the pc 2 , the lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 . the me 2 also instructs the pe 3 to specify a line connected to the man - 3 . at this time , the me 2 is just required to store the lsp selection information and the output line selection information as transfer information related to the terminals ( t 2 , t 5 , t 6 to t 8 , and t 11 ) of the enterprise b ; the me 2 is not required to store any transfer information related to the terminals of the enterprises a and c . next , a description will be made for the operation of each node when the terminal t 2 of lan - b 1 transfers frames addressed to the terminal t 7 of lan - b 3 with use of the frame transfer method of the present invention . fig3 shows a format of dix ethernet ii frames transmitted by the terminal t 2 . the dix ethernet ii frame format consists of a header part 410 , a data part 420 , and an fcs part 430 . the header part consists of fields of preamble 411 , sfd ( start of frame delimiter ) 412 , source mac address ( smac : source mac ) 413 , destination mac address ( dmac : destination mac ) 414 , and type 415 . the preamble field 411 includes information for enabling a frame receiving device to find the start of a frame and the sfd field includes information for denoting the start of the frame . in those fields , hexadecimal values “ 01010101 ” and “ ab ” are set respectively . the smac field 413 sets the source address of the frame while the dmac field 414 sets the destination address of the frame . the type 415 denotes a protocol of the network layer stored in the data part 420 . for example , “ 0800 ” ( hex ) denotes that the received frame is a novell netware frame . the data part 420 consists of fields of data 421 and padding 422 . the padding 422 fills the space of the frame so that the frame becomes at least 64 bytes in full data length . the fcs 430 part has an fcs field 431 . a device , when receiving a frame , checks this fcs field 431 to decide the validity / invalidity of the frame . the me 2 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 from the terminal t 2 , identifies that the frame belongs to the enterprise b according to the line number of the line ( hereinafter , referred to as the input line number ), through which the frame is received . this enterprise identification by the me 2 is realized by referring to a table 1500 ( fig4 ) provided in the me 2 to read the vlan id 1501 - i set in each entry therein according to the input line number written in the frame . the table 1500 stores the vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier set for each input line number . the me 2 then decides a target output line ( hereinafter , to be referred to as an output line number ) from which the frame is to be output and the destination site information according to the dmac 414 . this decision of the output line number and the destination site information is realized by referring to a table 1000 ( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with the mac address of each terminal . concretely , the me 2 reads a plurality of entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and compares the dmac 414 set in the header part 410 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry to decide the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1010 - i as both target line number and destination site information . this destination site information ( two bits ) consists of single - bit lsp selection information 1013 - i used to decide a target lsp at the inlet pe 1 of the backbone network and single - bit output line selection information 1023 - i used to decide an output line at the outlet pe 3 of the backbone network . the me 2 then adds a header to the frame and transmits the frame to the mc ( man core ). the added header includes the destination site information bit for denoting whether or not the destination site information 1003 - i is valid . the destination site information 1003 - i consists of determined enterprise information ( vlan id ) and destination site information 1003 - i . this header may be a vlan tag described in the ieee 802 . 1q . fig6 shows a format of frames transmitted from the me 2 and handled in the man - 1 after a vlan tag is added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig6 , a vlan tag 416 is inserted between the smac 413 and the type 415 in the header part in the frame format shown in fig3 . the tpid ( tag protocol identifier ) 501 set in the vlan tag 416 is used for the token ring , fddi , etc . when it is used by the ethernet ( trademark ), it is represented as “ 8100 ” in hexadecimal . the cfi ( canonical format indicator ) 503 is single - bit information used for the token ring communication . the up ( user priority ) 502 is 3 - bit information denoting a transfer priority level . in this embodiment , this up 502 is used as lsp selection information 505 ( 1 bit ) for storing lsp selection information , the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ) for storing output line selection information , and the destination site information bit 507 for denoting valid / invalid of both of the lsp selection information 505 and the output line selection information 506 ( 1 bit ). the vlan id 504 is an identifier of a vlan ( virtual lan ). in this embodiment , it is used as an enterprise ( vpn ) identifier . the pe 1 writes the lsp selection information 1013 - i , the output line selection information 1023 - i , and “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the lsp selection information 505 , the output line selection information 506 , and the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 respectively and writes the vlan id 1501 corresponding to the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 . the terminals t 2 or ce 2 may be configured so that the information of the enterprise b is written in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 in each frame to be transmitted . in this connection , the me 2 adds none of the enterprise identifier and the vlan tag 416 to the frame . the mc in the man - 1 , when receiving such a frame , decides a target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the frame and transfers the frame to the output line . the me 3 transfers frames similarly . such the output line decision by the mc or me 3 is realized by referring to a table 1100 ( fig7 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1100 - i , each storing a line number 1101 - i and a mac address 1102 - i . the mc or me 3 reads those entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 and compares the mac address 1102 - i in each of the entries 1110 - i with the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to decide the line number 1101 - i in the “ matching ” entry 1110 - i as the target output line number . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame through the mc or me 3 , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 in the frame to decide that it is the enterprise b . then , the pe 1 decides one or more sets , each consisting of an output line number , a vc lsp , and a tunnel lsp . the pe 1 also selects one of those sets according to the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 of the header part 510 . in this embodiment , the pe 1 selects the set 1 consisting of the line numbers of the lines to the pc 2 , a vc - lsp - b 2 , and the t - lsp 2 , as well as the set 2 consisting of line numbers of the lines to the pc 1 , the vc - lsp - b 1 , and the t - lsp 1 according to the vlan id 504 , then decides the set 1 according to the lsp selection information 505 as the information used for transferring the frame . this decision is realized by , for example , referring to a table 1200 ( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries 1210 - i . the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information 505 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry respectively . the pe 1 then decides the line number 1204 - i as the target output line number , the tunnel label 1205 - i as the target tunnel label and the vc label 1206 - i as the target vc label , set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i respectively . the pe 1 then adds the values of both tunnel label 1205 - i and vc label 1206 - i to the frame to be transmitted to the backbone network . fig9 shows a format of the frames handled in the backbone network , transmitted by the pe 1 after the header information related to both tunnel label and vc label are added to each of the frames . in the frame format shown in fig9 , a capsule header part 740 is added to the frame and the fields of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format shown in fig6 , thereby forming the new header part 710 . the capsule header part 740 consists of the same fields 441 to 445 as those of the header part 510 ( fig6 ), as well as a tunnel shim header 446 , and a vc shim header 447 . fig1 shows the tunnel shim header 446 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 and fig1 shows the vc shim header 447 formatted as described in the rfc 3032 . the tunnel shim header 446 consists of fields of tunnel label 801 , experimental tunnel exp 802 , tunnel s bit 803 , and tunnel ttl ( time to live ) 804 . similarly , the vc shim header 446 consists of fields of vc label 901 , 3 - bit vc exp 902 , vc s bit 903 , and vc ttl 904 . in this embodiment , the lower one bit of the vc exp 902 is used for the output line selection information 905 and the upper second bit is used for the vc exp information bit 906 to be set for denoting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 905 . the msb 907 is not used . the pe 1 stores the information of the tunnel label 1205 - i and the vc label 1206 - i decided above in the tunnel label 801 and in the vc label 901 respectively . finally , the pe 1 writes the value of the output line selection information 506 ( one bit ) of the up 502 in the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 so as to notify the pe 3 of the output line selection information , then writes “ 1 ” ( valid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 . after this , the pe 1 transmits the frame to the line corresponding to the line number 1204 - i . the pc 2 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 , then updates the tunnel label 801 . similarly , the pc 3 transfers the frame to the pc 3 according to the tunnel label 801 . the pc 3 may delete the tunnel shim header 446 at this time . when the header 446 is deleted , transmission of unnecessary information is prevented , thereby the network band can be used more efficiently . the pe 3 , when receiving this frame , identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to both the input line number and the vc label 901 to decide one or more target line numbers ( a line to man - 3 and a line to man - 4 in this embodiment ). the pe 3 also decides the line number of the line to man - 3 as the target output line number according to the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 . the output line decision by the pe 3 is realized by referring to a table 2400 ( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an input line number 2401 - i , a vc label 2402 - i , a vc exp 2403 - i , and an output line number 2404 - i . concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the input line number set in each read entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , the output line selection information 905 set in the vc exp 902 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 3403 - i in each entry 2410 - i to decide the output line number 2404 - i in the “ matching ” entry as the target output line number . the 3 - bit vc exp 2403 - i consists of the output line selection information 2406 - i ( 1 bit ), the vc exp information bit 2407 - i ( 1 bit ) denoting valid / invalid of the vc exp 2403 - i , a non - used bit 2408 - i ( 1 bit ). the value in this vc exp information bit 2407 - i is fixed at “ 1 ”. after this , the pe 3 deletes the capsule header part 740 ( fig9 ) from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the header part of the frame , thereby the frame is formatted as shown in fig6 and the frame is transmitted to the line corresponding to the output line number 2404 - i . each node in the man - 3 decides the target output line number according to the dmac 414 set in the header part 510 to transfer the frame to the lan - b 3 similarly to the mc in the man - 1 . as described above , because both pe 1 and pe 3 are not required to store information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal , the table for storing such the information will not prevent the network from expanding in scale . the information corresponding to the mac address of each terminal may be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 from the administration terminal connected to each node . when there are many terminals t and such terminals t are often added / deleted to / from the network , such the information should be set in the tables 1000 and 1100 automatically . this auto setting of such the information is realized by making each node perform flooding , notifying , and learning operations . hereinafter , these three operations will be described . if no entry 1010 - i is set in the table 1000 ( fig5 ) formed in the me 2 nor in the table 1100 ( fig7 ) formed in the mc in correspondence with the dmac 414 set in a frame transmitted from the t 2 to the me 2 , each node in the network transmits the frame to all the terminals t of the same contractor ( which , in the present embodiment , refers to an enterprise to which same vlan id is assigned ). each node in a man decides one or more output line numbers to which the frame is to be transmitted according to the vlan id . here , the mc in the man - 1 is picked up as an example . because only the lan - a 1 and the lan - b 1 are connected to the man - 1 , the mc is just required to transmit the frames of enterprises a and b ; it is not required to transmit the frames of the enterprise c . to transfer a frame of the enterprise a , therefore , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 1 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - a 2 according to the vlan - a 2 of the enterprise a respectively . similarly , to transfer a frame of the enterprise b , the mc sets a line number connected to the me 2 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 1 and a line number connected to the me 3 for transferring the frame to the lan - b 2 and lan - b 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . and , to realize such the operations , the mc refers to a table 1300 ( fig1 ). the table 1300 is used for flooding operation and provided with a bit map 1310 - i prepared for each vlan id . frame output yes / no information is set in the output line vldj field 130 j - i located in the bit map 1310 - i with respect to each output line j . at first , the flooding operation of the me 2 will be described . the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the above table 1500 (( fig4 ) that stores a vlan id , which is an enterprise identifier , in correspondence with each input line number ) to decide the vlan id . then , the me 2 refer to the table 1000 (( fig5 ) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ). when the table 1000 includes no entry 1010 - i corresponding to the dmac 414 set in the frame , the me 2 reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1300 , corresponding to the vlan id of the enterprise b so as to perform a flooding operation . this bit map 1310 - i stores data set so as to output the frame to a line connected to the mc and a line to the ce 2 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b respectively . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line at this time , the me 2 decides that only the line to the mc is the target output line . and , because the me 2 cannot obtain no destination site information at this time , the me 2 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the destination site information bit 502 , then transmits the frame to the mc . next , the flooding operation by the mc will be described . the mc , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , refer to the table 1100 (( fig7 ) that stores a mac address set in correspondence with each line number ) similarly to the me 2 . when the table 1100 includes no entry 1110 corresponding to the dmac 414 , the mc reads the bit map 1310 - i from the table 1100 , corresponding to the vlan id 504 of the enterprise so as to perform the flooding operation . because no terminal of the enterprise b is connected to any of the me 1 and the me 4 , this bit map 1310 - i stores data needed to output the frame just to a line to the me 2 and a line to the me 3 according to the vlan id of the enterprise b . however , because there is no need to transmit the frame to the input line here , the mc decides that only the line to the me 3 is the target output line and transmits the frame to the me 3 . the me 3 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , also performs the flooding operation similarly . next , the flooding operation by the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame from the terminal t 2 , identifies “ 0 ” ( invalid ) set in the destination site information bit 507 of the up 502 , thereby the pe 1 performs a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 1 transfers a copy of the frame to each of the output lines and lsps connected to the sites of the target enterprise ( enterprise b in this example ). this decision of all the output lines and lsps by the pe 1 is realized by , for example , masking the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless whether or not the “ matching ” is detected with respect to lsp selection information 1202 - i ) and referring to a table 1200 (( fig8 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing a line number , a tunnel label , and a vc label ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry so that the vlan id 504 set in the header part 510 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry . the pe 1 decides so that the frame is transmitted to the output line and the lsp specified by a set of a line number 1204 - i , a tunnel label 1205 - i , and a vc label 1206 - i set in every vlan - id - matching entry 1210 - i , thereby transferring the frame to the decided output line . at this time , the pe 1 writes “ 0 ” ( invalid ) in the vc exp information bit 906 of the vc exp 902 . next , the flooding operation by the pe 3 will be described . the pe 3 , when receiving a frame in which the vc exp information bit 906 “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp field 902 , begins a flooding operation . in this flooding operation , the pe 3 identifies the enterprise to which the frame belongs according to the input line number and the vc label 901 set in the frame and decides one or more target output line numbers , then transmits a copy of the frame to all the lines corresponding to those output line numbers . for example , this decision of the target output line numbers is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries , each storing an output line number ) by masking the vc exp 2403 - i ( regardless whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the vc exp 2403 - i ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i in each entry and the vc label 901 set in the capsule header part 740 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry . the pe 3 then decides the output line numbers 2404 - i set in all the vc - label -“ matching ” entries 2401 - i ( line numbers of the lines to man - 3 and man - 4 in this embodiment ) as the target output line numbers and transfer the frame to all the decided lines . next , the notifying operation for notifying the object of destination site information will be described . the pe 3 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the output line selection information used to transfer the frame to the terminal t 7 in the frame . the me 2 stores this output line selection information corresponding to the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . for example , the decision of this output line selection information is realized by referring to the table 2400 (( fig1 ) that stores a plurality of entries 2410 - i , each storing an output line number ). concretely , the pe 3 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry , the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 used for the frame transfer in the opposite direction of the vc - lsp - b 4 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , and the output line number used for the frame transfer is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry to write the output line selection information 2406 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 of the frame . on the other hand , the pe 1 , when transferring a frame addressed to the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 , writes the lsp selection information used for the frame transfer ( lsp selection information corresponding to the line number of a line connected to pc 2 , t - lsp 2 and vc - lsp - b 2 ) in the frame to be transferred to the terminal t 2 through the terminal t 7 . the me 2 stores this lsp selection information in correspondence with the mac address of the terminal t 7 through a learning operation to be described later . the decision of this lsp selection information is realized , for example , by referring to the table 2400 ( fig1 ). concretely , the pe 1 reads those entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry and the vc label corresponding to the vc - lsp - b 2 is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry , then writes the lsp selection information 2405 - i ( 1 bit ) obtained from the “ matching ” entry in the lsp selection information 506 field of the frame . it should be avoided to always perform a flooding operation . otherwise , the line bandwidth cannot be used efficiently . the mc thus performs a learning operation so as to store an input line number corresponding to the source mac address set in each inputted frame . on the other hand , the me performs a learning operation so as to store destination site information notified by the above notifying operation . the mc , when receiving a frame , reads the entries 1110 - i one by one from the table 1100 ( fig7 )) that stores a mac address in correspondence with each line number ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1110 - i so that the input line number written in the frame is compared with the line number 1101 - i set in each entry and the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1102 - i set in each entry . when there is no “ matching ” entry 1110 - i found in the comparison , the mc registers the input line number and the smac 414 written in the frame as new items 1101 - i and 1102 - i in an entry 1110 - i to be set in the table 1100 . similarly , the me 2 , when receiving a frame from the mc , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 (( fig5 )) that stores both output line number and destination site information in correspondence with each mac address ) to compare the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the input line number in the frame is compared with the line number 1001 - i set in each entry , the smac 413 written in the frame is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry , the lsp selection information 505 written by the pe 1 and output line selection information 506 written by the pe 3 in the frame are compared with lsp selection information 1013 - i and output line selection information 1023 - i in the destination site information 1003 - i set in each entry . and , when there is no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i found in the comparison , the me 2 writes the items input line number of the frame , 413 , 506 , and 505 specified in the frame as a line number 1001 - i , a mac address 1002 - i , output line selection information 1023 - i , and lsp selection information 1013 - i that are all set in an entry 1010 - i to be registered in the table 1000 . the pe in the backbone network is not required to transfer any frame according to the dmac 414 , so that it does not perform such the learning operation . while a description has been made for a case in which the me 2 maps destination site information in the up 502 and the pe 1 maps output line selection information in the vc exp 902 , the fields of the up 502 and vc exp 902 might come to be too small in capacity to map destination site information and output line selection information as described above when the subject enterprise has many sites connected over many mans . this is because the up 502 and the vc exp 902 are as small as 3 bits in length . in such a case , the me 2 can add one more vlan tag and write destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) in this vlan id 604 ( 12 bits ). fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the me 2 . unlike the frame format shown in fig6 , the frame format shown in fig1 has a plurality of vlan tags 416 and 417 . in fig1 , the vlan tag 417 is a new field added as described above . similarly , the pe 1 can add one more shim header to the frame so as to write output line selection information therein . fig1 shows such a format of the frames to be transmitted from the pe 1 . unlike the frame format shown in fig9 , the frame format shown in fig1 has three shim headers . in other words , an extension shim header 448 is newly added to the frame format . each node in the network operates in correspondence with such the header configuration . next , a description will be made for the operation by the me used in a network of the present invention with reference to fig1 and 17 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the me 2 . fig1 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 1700 . in the embodiment to be described below , the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 transfers frames to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and performs the flooding operation . as shown in fig1 , the me 2 is configured by a received frame process unit 1602 - j provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 1601 - j ( j = 1 to m ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 1604 - j provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 1605 - j ( j = 1 to m ) from which frames are output , a header process unit 1700 used to process the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 1603 used to switch frames among output lines . this header process unit 1700 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the frame input enterprise ( vlan id ), the output line number , and the destination site information . the frame switch 1603 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . at first , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives a frame from the lan - b 1 ce 2 , then transmits the frame to the mc . fig1 shows a format of the frames handled in the me 2 in this connection . unlike the frame format shown in fig3 , the frame format shown in fig1 has an internal header part 1840 added newly thereto and both of the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted therefrom , thereby forming the new header part 1810 . this internal header part 1840 consists of fields of input line number 1841 , output line number 1842 , destination site information 1843 ( consisting of fields of lsp selection information 1846 and output line selection information 1847 ), destination site information bit 1845 describing valid / invalid of the field 1843 , and vlan id 1844 . the received frame process unit 1602 - j , when receiving a frame through an input line 1601 - j , deletes both preamble 411 and sfd 412 from the frame and adds the internal header part 1840 to the frame , then writes the identifier “ j ” of the frame input line 1601 - j in the input line number field 1841 . then , the received frame process unit 1602 - j stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - j consisting of the internal header part 1840 and the header part 1810 to the header process unit 1700 . the values of the output line number 1842 , the destination site information 1843 , the destination site information bit 1845 , and the vlan id 1844 set in the frame header information fh - j transmitted to the header part process unit 1700 are all meaningless . the header process unit 1700 decides the enterprise ( vlan id ) that has transmitted the frame , the output line number , and the destination site information ( 2 bits of lsp selection information and output line selection information ) with reference to the tables 1500 and 1000 ( fig4 and 5 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 1602 - j as destination information di - j . the detail operation of the header process unit 1700 is described later . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving destination information di - j , writes the information decided by the header process unit 1700 in the internal header part 1840 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 1602 writes the vlan id of the destination information di - j in the vlan id 1844 of the internal header part 1840 , the output line number is written in the output line number 1842 , the destination site information is written in the destination site information 1843 , and the destination site information bit is written in the destination site information bit 1845 respectively . then , the received frame process unit 1602 transmits the frame to the frame switch 1603 . the received frame process unit 1602 , when receiving a plurality of pieces of destination information di - j addressed to one frame , copies the frame and transmits a copy of the frame to the frame switch 1603 . at this time , at least one of the vlan - id 1844 , the output line number 1842 , and the destination site information 1843 must be different from the original one set in the internal header part 1840 . the frame switch 1603 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j corresponding to the output line number 1842 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j deletes the internal header part 1840 from and adds the preamble 411 , the sfd 412 , and the vlan tag 416 to the frame , thereby the frame format is updated as shown in fig6 . in other words , the process unit 1604 - j writes the value of the vlan id 1844 in the vlan id 504 of the vlan tag 416 , the lsp selection information of the destination site information 1843 in the lsp selection information 505 of the up 502 , the output line selection information 1847 of the destination site information 1843 in the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 , and the destination site information bit 1845 in the destination site information bit 507 respectively to change the frame format . the frame is then transmitted to the mc . next , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described with reference to fig1 . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh with the frame header information storage . the frame header information fh is obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through a multiplexer 1740 . a table access means 1721 of the vlan id decision unit 1720 reads an entry 1501 - i corresponding to the input line number stored in the memory 1760 from the table 1500 ( fig4 ) to decide the vlan id information , then transmits the decision result vi to both of the results output unit 1750 and the table access means 1713 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refer to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to decide both the output line number and the destination site information ( lsp selection information and output line selection information ) corresponding to the dmac 414 and transmits the destination result ( information di ) to the results output unit 1750 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 of the destination information decision unit 1710 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 1760 , reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1010 - i so that the dmac 414 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 is compared with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . this comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the “ matching ” denoting information is transmitted to the destination information decision circuit 1714 together with the line number 1001 - i and the destination site information 1003 - i set in the entry 1010 - i . on the other hand , the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i stored in the table 1300 ( fig1 ) corresponding to the vlan id information vi decided by the vlan id decision unit 1720 and used for the flooding operation , then transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . receiving each “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 1711 , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . in this information di , the line number 1001 - i , the destination site information 1003 - i , and the destination site information bit “ 1 ” are set . when receiving no “ matching ” information , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . the information di includes an output line number obtained by encoding the bit map 1310 - i used for flooding operation , which is received from the table access means 1713 , the destination site information “ 00 ”, and destination site information bit “ 0 ”. at this time , the destination information decision circuit 1714 does not transmit the destination information di with respect to the bit corresponding to the input line number 1814 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . when the bit map is described so as to transmit the frame to a plurality of output lines 1605 - j , the destination information decision circuit 1714 transmits a plurality of pieces of the destination information di to the results output unit 1750 . each time receiving destination information di , the results output unit 1750 transmits the values of the destination information di and the vlan id as the destination information vi di - j to the received frame process unit 1602 - j corresponding to the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 . and , because the value of the vlan id information vi is decided by an input line number , the same value is always set in the plurality of pieces of the destination information di - j . while a description has been made so far for a case in which the me 2 recognizes the enterprise b and writes this information in the vlan id 504 , the terminal t 2 and the ce 2 may also write the information of the enterprise b in the vlan id 504 to transmit frames . in this connection , the frame format in the me 2 becomes as shown in fig1 . at this time , the vlan id decision unit 1720 does not decide the vlan id information vi and the table access means 1713 reads the bit map 1310 - i corresponding to the vlan id 504 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 1714 . the transmit frame process unit 1604 - j does not overwrite the information of the vlan id 1844 on the vlan id 504 . next , a description will be made for a case in which the me 2 receives frames formatted as shown in fig6 from the mc and performs the learning operation . in this connection , an internal header part 1840 is added to the format of the frames received by the me 2 , thereby the frame format comes to differ from that ( shown in fig6 ) of the frames in the me 2 . and , both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame to form a new header part 1910 ( as shown in fig1 ). at first , the operation by the header process unit 1700 will be described . the header process unit 1700 , when receiving frame header information fh - j consisting of an internal header part 1840 and a header part 1910 from the received frame process unit 1602 - j , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - j through the multiplexer 1740 with the frame header information storage 1760 . the destination information decision unit 1710 refers to the table 1000 ( fig5 ) to check the presence of an entry 1010 - i corresponding to the smac 413 written in the frame . when it is not found , the destination information decision unit 1710 learns the input line number 1841 , the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 506 corresponding to the smac 413 . more concretely , the table access means 1711 reads the entries 1010 - i one by one from the table 1000 and transmits the read entries 1010 - i to the comparator 1712 . the comparator 1712 compares the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame with the mac address 1002 - i set in each entry 1010 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 1711 . the table access means 1711 and the comparator 1712 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 1010 - i in the table 1000 . when a “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 decides that both line number and destination site information corresponding to the smac 413 are already stored in the table 1000 , thereby terminating the learning operation . if no “ matching ” entry 1010 - i is detected , the table access means 1711 registers an entry 1010 - i in the table 1000 . the new entry 1010 - i includes the line number 1001 - i as the input line number 1841 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the mac address 1002 - i as the smac 413 stored in the frame header information storage 1760 of the frame , the destination site information 1013 - i of the lsp selection information 1003 - i as the lsp selection information 505 set in the up 502 , and the output line selection information 1023 - i of the destination site information 1003 - i as the output line selection information 506 set in the up 502 respectively . next , a description will be made for the operation by the pe 1 / pe 3 employed for the network of the present invention with reference to fig1 , 15 , 21 , and 20 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a major portion of the pe 1 / pe 3 . fig2 shows a block diagram of a header process unit 2300 ( both pe 1 and pe 3 are the same in configuration ). in the embodiment to be described below , it is premised that transfer and flooding operations by the pe 1 and pe 3 for frames from the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 to the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 and learning operations by the pe 3 and pe 1 for frames from the terminal t 7 to the terminal t 2 . as shown in fig2 , the pe 1 is configured by a received frame process unit 2002 - k provided to cope with a plurality of input lines 2001 - k ( k = 1 to l ) to which frames are inputted , a transmit frame process unit 2004 - k provided to cope with a plurality of output lines 2005 - k from which frames are output , a header process unit 2300 for processing the header part of each inputted frame , and a frame switch 2003 for switching frames among output lines . the header process unit 2300 analyzes the header of each frame to decide the output line number and the lsp . the frame switch 2003 switches frames among output lines according to the output line number decided by the header process unit 1700 . next , a description will be made for the transfer operation by the pe 1 in response to a frame received from the me 3 . the format of the frames in the pe 1 ( shown in fig2 ) differs from that of the frames received ( shown in fig6 ). an internal header part 2140 is added to the frame format in this case and the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 are deleted from the header part 510 of the frame format in fig6 to form the new header part 2110 . this internal header part 2140 consists of fields of input line number 2141 , output line number 2142 , tunnel label information 2143 , vc label information 2144 , and 3 - bit vc exp information 2145 . this vc exp information 2145 consists of fields of output line selection information 2147 , vc exp information bit 2146 for setting valid / invalid of the output line selection information 2147 , and a field 2148 that is not used . the received frame process unit 2002 - k , when receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from and adds an internal header part 2140 to the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then stores the frame once therein and transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 and the header part 2110 to the header process unit 2300 . in the frame header information fh - k , the values set in the output line number 2142 , the tunnel label information 2143 , the vc label information 2144 , and the vc exp information 2145 are all meaningless . the header process unit 2300 decides such target information as an output line number , a tunnel label information , a vc label information , and the vc exp information according to the vlan id 504 of the up 502 set in the frame header information fh - k by referring to the table 1200 or 2400 ( fig8 and 12 ), then transmits the decided information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation of this header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . receiving the destination information di - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the information decided by the header process unit 2300 in the internal header part 2140 of the frame . in other words , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number of the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 , the tunnel label information in the tunnel label information field 2143 , the vc label information in the vc label information field 2144 , and the vc exp information in the vc exp information field 2145 located respectively in the internal header part 2140 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k then transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 from the frame and adds a capsule header part 740 thereto to format the frame as shown in fig9 . concretely , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k writes the value of the tunnel label information 2143 in the tunnel label field 801 of the tunnel shim header 446 , the value of the vc label information 2144 in the vc label field 901 of the vc shim header 447 and the value of the vc exp information 2145 in the vc exp field 902 respectively to change the frame format . after this , the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , when receiving frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . when the me 2 completes the learning and the up 502 has a meaningful value (“ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 1200 ( fig8 ) and transmits the output line number , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information obtained from the table in correspondence with both vlan id 504 and up 502 to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . on the other hand , when the me 2 does not complete the learning yet and the up 502 has a meaningless value (“ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit of the up 502 ), the destination information decision unit 2310 transmits a set of one or more output line numbers corresponding to the vlan id 504 , the tunnel label information , the vc label information , and the vc exp information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . more concretely , the table access means 2311 of the destination information decision unit 2310 , when the frame header information fh is stored in the frame header information storage 2360 , reads entries 1210 - i one by one from the table 1200 and transmits the read entries to the comparator 2312 . the comparator 2312 , when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and the lsp selection information written in the frame is compared with the lsp selection information 1202 - i set in each entry 1210 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 masks the lsp selection information 1202 - i ( regardless of whether or not “ matching ” is detected with respect to the lsp selection information ) to make the comparison , that is , compares the vlan id 501 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame with the vlan id 1201 - i set in each entry 1210 - i and transmits the result to the table access means 2311 . the above comparison is repeated until it is completed for all the entries 1210 - i in the table 1200 . and , each time a “ matching ” entry is detected in the comparison , the comparator 2311 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the line number 1204 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , and the vc label 1206 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 1210 - i . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2311 sets the 3 - bit vc exp information to the lower one bit of the output line selection information 506 of the up 502 and sets “ 1 ” in the upper second bit in the frame . the “ 1 ” denotes that the vc exp information is valid . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit , the comparator 2312 sets “ 0 ” ( denoting that the vc exp information is invalid ) in the upper second bit and transmits the result to the destination information decision circuit 2314 . when “ 1 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is detected only in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 2 and the t - lsp 2 in the line connected to the pc 2 . when “ 0 ” is set in the destination site information bit 507 , the comparator 2312 decides that “ matching ” is also detected in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the vc lsp - b 1 and the t - lsp 1 in the line to the pc 1 . each time receiving “ matching ” denoting information from the table access means 2311 , the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits the line number 1201 - i , the tunnel label 1205 - i , the vc label 1206 - i , and the vc exp information to the object as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 transmits one or more pieces of the destination information di to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation by the pe 3 will be described . the configuration of the pe 3 is the same as that of the pe 1 ( fig2 ). the pe 3 , when receiving a frame addressed to the lan - b 1 terminal t 2 from the lan - b 3 terminal t 7 through the man - 3 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 1 described above , but also decides the output line selection information used for transmitting the frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the output line selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the output line selection information used for selecting a line to the man - 3 and adds the output line selection information to the information di - k in transfer operation by the pe 1 , then transmits the frame to the received frame process unit 2002 - k . more concretely , each time the pe 3 decides a “ matching ” entry 1210 - i 1 in the above transfer operation , the table access means 2311 reads the entry 1210 - i 2 paired with the entry 1210 - i 1 and decides that the vc label 1206 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target vc label 1 and the line number 1204 - i 2 set in the entry 1210 - i 2 is the target output line number 1 , then notifies the comparator 2317 of the decision results . to read such a pair of entries , for example , the table access means 2311 is just required to assume the addresses of the entries 1210 - i 1 and 1210 - i 2 as consecutive integers ( 2n and 2n + 1 ) and read the entry 1210 -( i + 1 ) from the address 2 n + 1 when it is decided that the address 2 n matches with that of the entry 1210 - i and read the entry 1210 -( i − 1 ) from the address 2 n when it is decided that the address 2 n + 1 matches with that of the entry 1210 - i . in addition , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 1210 - i so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 1 written in the frame is compared with the vc label 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line number 1 written in the frame is compared with the output line number 2404 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 then transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table . the table access means 2316 transmits the output line selection information 2406 - i set in the vc exp 2403 - i field of the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the output line selection information lsni . the results output unit 2350 transmits the above information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes this output line selection information in the output line selection information field 506 of the up 502 in the frame and transfers the frame to the frame switch 1603 . next , how the pe 3 transfers each frame received from the pc 3 will be described . in this case , the frame format in the pe 1 differs from that of received frames shown in fig9 . an internal header part 2140 is added to each received frame and both preamble 411 and sfd 412 are deleted from the capsule header part 740 to form a new header 2240 as shown in fig2 . receiving a frame through an input line 2001 - k , the received frame process unit 2002 - k adds the internal header part 2140 to the frame and deletes the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 from the header part 2210 of the frame , then writes the identifier of the input line 2001 - k to which the frame is inputted in the input line number field 2141 of the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig2 . the received frame process unit 2002 - k also stores the frame once therein , then transmits the frame header information fh - k consisting of the internal header part 2140 , the capsule header part 2240 , and header part 2210 to the header process unit 2300 . the header process unit 2300 decides the target output line number according to the frame header information fh - k and transmits the result to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as the destination information di - k . the operation by this frame header process unit 2300 will be described later more in detail . after this , the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the output line number set in the destination information di - k in the output line number field 2142 of the internal header part 2140 and transmits the frame to the frame switch 2003 . the frame switch 2003 then transmits the frame to the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k corresponding to the output line number 2142 . the transmit frame process unit 2004 - k deletes the internal header part 2140 and the capsule header part 2240 from the frame and adds the preamble 411 and the sfd 412 to the frame to change the frame format as shown in fig6 , then transmits the frame to the next node . next , the operation by the header process unit 2300 will be described with reference to fig2 . the header process unit 2300 , receiving a plurality of pieces of frame header information fh - k from the received frame process unit 2002 - k , stores the frame header information fh obtained by multiplexing a plurality of pieces of information fh - k through the multiplexer 2340 with the frame header information storage 2360 . the destination information decision unit 2310 refers to the table 2400 ( fig1 ) to decide the target output line number . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that , when “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 located in the vc exp 902 , the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i , and the output line selection information 905 of the vc exp 902 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the output line selection information 2406 - i of the vc exp 2403 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . on the other hand , when “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 , the comparator 2317 masks the output line selection information ( regardless of whether or not the output line selection information matches with the target ) to make the comparison . in other words , the comparator 2317 makes comparisons as described above so that the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . the comparator 2317 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . each time “ matching ” is detected in the above comparison with respect to an entry 2410 - i , the comparator 2316 transmits the “ matching ” denoting information to the destination information decision circuit 2314 together with the output line number 2404 - i set in the “ matching ” entry 2410 - i . when the me 2 completes the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningful value ( that is , “ 1 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the pe 3 decides “ matching ” only in the entry 2410 - i to be transmitted to the man - 3 . when the me 2 does not complete the learning and the vc exp 902 has a meaningless value ( that is , “ 0 ” is set in the vc exp information bit 906 ), the me 2 also decides “ matching ” in the entry 1210 - i to be transmitted to the man - 4 . the destination information decision circuit 2314 transmits one or more line numbers 2404 - i received from the table access means 2316 to the results output unit 2350 as the destination information di . the results output unit 2350 , each time receiving the destination information di , transfers the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k corresponding to the input line number 2141 stored in the frame header information storage 2360 as the destination information di - k . next , the notifying operation of the pe 1 will be described . the pe 1 , when receiving a frame addressed to the terminal t 2 from the terminal t 7 , not only transfers the frame just like the pe 3 described above , but also decides the lsp selection information used for transmitting the above frame addressed to the terminal t 7 and writes the result in the frame to notify the me 2 of the lsp selection information . consequently , the header process unit 2300 decides the lsp selection information and transmits the information to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . more concretely , the table access means 2316 reads the entries 2410 - i one by one from the table 2400 ( fig1 ) and transmits the read entries 2410 - i to the comparator 2317 . the comparator 2317 then compares the information written in the frame with that set in each entry 2410 - i so that the input line number 2141 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the input line number 2401 - i set in each entry 2410 - i and the vc label 901 set in the frame header information storage 2360 of the frame is compared with the vc label 2402 - i set in each entry 2410 - i . after this , the comparator 2312 transmits the results to the table access means 2316 . the table access means 2316 and the comparator 2317 repeat the above operation until the comparison is completed for all the entries 2410 - i in the table 2400 . the table access means 2316 transmits the lsp selection information 2405 - i obtained from the “ matching ” entry 1410 - i to the results output unit 2350 as the lsp selection information lspsi . at this time , the vc exp 2403 - i is masked , so that “ matching ” comes to be detected in a plurality of entries 2410 - i in which the values of the vc exp 2 differs from each other . however , because the value of the lsp selection information 2405 - i in all those entries 2410 - i are the same , the value in any of those entries 2410 - i may be transmitted to the results output unit 2350 . the results output unit 2350 then transmits the lsp selection information lspsi to the received frame process unit 2002 - k as a portion of the destination information di - k . when it is required to transmit a plurality of pieces of destination information di - k , each including a unique output line number , the same value is set in all those pieces of the lsp selection information . the received frame process unit 2002 - k writes the lsp selection information set in the destination information di - k in the lsp selection information 505 of every frame to be transmitted to the frame switch 1603 , then transfers the frames to the me 2 .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
775f5241361537a9f049d9050e2498e9530dae606f831e7f128c45721ca05e54
0.384766
0.202148
0.098145
0.347656
0.138672
0.339844
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Should this patent be classified under 'Human Necessities'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.037354
0.006104
0.002045
0.000828
0.026733
0.007355
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.053467
0.416016
0.006683
0.484375
0.042725
0.376953
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Should this patent be classified under 'Human Necessities'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.037354
0.086426
0.002045
0.005066
0.026733
0.007111
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.101074
0.014526
0.014038
0.015869
0.064453
0.056641
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.099609
0.001503
0.014038
0.000123
0.064453
0.005554
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.017944
0.217773
0.000828
0.083984
0.006683
0.306641
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Should this patent be classified under 'Human Necessities'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Electricity'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.037354
0.000315
0.002045
0.000051
0.026733
0.000191
null
the present inventors have unexpectedly discovered that due to the small molecular size of the fluoride , and its affinity for multiple cross - linking sites , the fluoride can produce cross - linkage in hair and cause temporary or permanent restructuring of the hair ; i . e . causes straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling of the hair fiber . more particularly , the use of sodium fluoride can be used in hair products for straightening , smoothing , defrizzing and / or curling . sodium fluoride has excellent water solubility . unexpectedly , the present inventors have discovered that the fluoride can be used to crosslink other molecules to the hair to provide long lasting conditioning or volume to the hair . it can also be used to bind hair dye molecules in the hair for longer lasting coloring of the hair . sodium fluoride is an alternative to conventional hair products using formaldehyde . our data show that compositions for hair treatment having about 0 . 1 to about 15 %, preferably about 0 . 1 to about 3 . 0 %, and more preferably about 0 . 60 to about 1 . 25 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 , along with a polysaccharide thickener ( such as amigel ®) has a perceptible effect on curl reduction , and that smoothening or better alignment of hair fibers is observed for all normal and porous hair types . fig1 to 7 show the effects of a sodium fluoride composition on several hair types , normal and porous hair including 20 volume color treated and bleached hair . the results from examples 1 to 7 below are shown in fig1 to 7 , respectively . in each of the following examples , the hair was treated as follows : the hair was shampooed and blotted dry . the hair was combed and the treatment composition was applied on the hair for 35 minutes at room temperature with a brush and then it was treated as in the directions below for each of examples 1 to 7 . for all hair samples marked “ a ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was air - dried naturally . for all hair samples marked “ b ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair was rinsed with tap water . the hair was blow dried to about 90 % and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water . for all hair samples marked “ c ”, the treatment composition was applied for 35 minutes and then the hair blow dried at a medium setting to about 90 %, and then flat ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air - dried naturally . for example 1 , shown in fig1 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 2 , shown in fig2 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 20 volume hair . for example 3 , shown in fig3 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to very curly 40 volume bleached hair . for example 4 , shown in fig4 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 % sodium fluoride at ˜ ph 4 . 8 was applied to wavy 20 volume hair . for example 5 , shown in fig5 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 2 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to very curly normal hair . for example 6 , show in fig6 , a composition of the present disclosure containing 1 . 5 % sodium fluoride at a ph of approximately 4 . 8 was applied to 40 volume bleached hair . for example 7 , samples a , b , and c were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes . the hair was blow dried at medium heat setting to about 90 % dry , and then flat - ironed at 430 ° f . the hair was then rinsed with tap water , and the hair was air dried naturally . samples o and z were treated as follows : the treatment composition was applied to the hair for 35 minutes , and then the hair was blow dried at a medium heat setting to about 90 % dry . the hair was then flat - ironed at 430 ° f ., and then was rinsed with tap water . the hair was then air dried naturally . as used in this application , the word “ about ” for dimensions , weights , and other measures , means a range that is ± 10 % of the stated value , more preferably ± 5 % of the stated value , and most preferably ± 2 % of the stated value , including all sub ranges there between . in practice of the present disclosure one or more other extended cosmetic compositions can be included for their generally acceptable recognized purposes . these can include soothing agents , such as aloe or allantoin gelatin ; auxiliary emollients , such as squalene , mineral oil , argan oil , coconut oil , jojoba oil , walnut oil or liquid silicones ; fatty alcohol based thickeners , such as cetyl alcohol , cetearyl alcohol , or stearic acid ; low to no foaming cationic , nonionic or amphoteric emulsifiers ; or preservatives , such as phenoxyethanol , sorbitol , potassium sorbate , sodium sorbate , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , imidazolidynyl urea , or dmdm hydantoin . the composition may also contain a fragrance to neutralize any malodors of the composition . the hair swatches are shampooed with a clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried straight at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the tabulated data of table i above shows that the overall performance of curl reduction , shine and smoothness on hair depends on the ph of composition i and method of application . the performance appears to be dependent on the ph and independent of the type of ph adjustor . the optimum performance of composition i ph range on normal , color treated and bleached hair , appears to be between 4 - 5 . also , the performance effects are dependent on the method of application of composition i . application methods a and d are preferable over methods b and c . both methods a and d have high heat flat ironing greater than 400 f .° with composition i or rinsed off the hair . curl reduction , increase in smoothness and shine of 40 - 80 % have been observed on normal , color treated and bleached hair . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and hair was blow dried and straightened at high heat setting using a brush . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition i product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and air dried from the hair . the hair was rinsed after 48 hrs . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulated data on table ia shows that the optimum ph of composition i for maximum performance is about 4 . 50 . this is in agreement with the previous data of table i . exceptional curl reduction , smoothing and shine is observed on all hair types including normal , color treated and multi bleached hair . performance effects of 1 treatment , 1 wash , 5 wash , 10 wash and 2nd treatment with 0 . 75 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) process a : the hair swatches were shampooed with an alkaline shampoo ( ph = 8 . 10 ), towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii - b product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . one of the swatch was rinsed and evaluated , the second swatch was washed 1 times and evaluated , the third swatch washed 5 times and evaluated , the fourth swatch was washed 10 times and evaluated and the fifth swatch was washed 10 times and 2nd treatment was repeated and after 48 hours the tabulated data on table ii shows that the performance longevity of a single treatment with composition ii - b can last multiple shampoos . in addition , the performance of repeat or double treatments increases significantly the performance in curl reduction , shine and smoothness . curl reduction study at higher ph range with 0 . 50 % naf composition ii - b on very curly / frizzy hair process a : the measurement of the initial length ( l0 ) and ( l100 ) of each swatch was taken . the hair swatches were shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii “ b ” with different ph range was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at high heat followed by flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours and air dried . % curl reduction was calculated with the final length ( lt ) the data of table iii shows the performance of composition iib , 0 . 50 % naf above ph 8 . 05 shows no advantages . this is probably due to unfavorable crosslinking between unprotonated amino r ′— n — r ″ ( r ′═ h , c ═ o or r ″═ h , c ═ o ) peptide side terminals and the fluoride ion that occurs at high ph . whereas the ph decreases the protonation of the amino group and specifically the peptide side terminals of lysine , arginine r — nh3 + and will favor crosslinking with the fluoride ion . these side terminal crosslinks r — nh3f , — n — h2f , — n — hf or possible amide crosslinks f — n — c ═ o are more favorable at low ph . alternatively , favorable crosslinking may occur with the side oh side terminals of threonine and serine or indirect crosslinking followed by dehydration for threonine side terminal . the hair swatches are shampooed with clarifying shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . the excess product was towel blotted and the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing @ 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the hair swatches are shampooed with shampoo , towel blot and dried at medium heat with blow dryer . the composition ii product was applied liberally to the hair with a brush and processed for 35 minutes . the hair was rinsed with luke warm water . the hair is dried to about 95 % with a blow dryer at low heat followed with flat ironing at 430 ° f . using 7 - 8 passes . the hair was rinsed after 48 hours . the performance % curl reduction , shine and smoothness was evaluated . the tabulate data of table iv shows that the performance on normal hair is not affected greatly with the concentration increase of naf from 0 . 5 - 2 . 50 %. however , on porous hair 20 volume and twice 40 volume bleached hair , naf concentration effects are observed . the data shows equivalent performance to 0 . 5 % formaldehyde is obtained with 0 . 23 % f ( 0 . 50 % naf ). this observation can be explained due to the presence of larger number of ionic sites in hair which result in greater crosslinking and overall performance of curl reduction and smoothing effects . it also suggests that the crosslinking reactions of the fluoride and formaldehyde with hair may not entirely be the same . the specificity of crosslinking with the fluoride is greater than formaldehyde , thus more predictable results can be obtained . table v performance evaluation using treatment processes e , f and g ( normal , color treated and 2x bleached hair type ) composition ii - b naf 0 . 75 % amigel thickener 0 . 60 % glycerol 0 . 50 % phenoxyethanol 0 . 20 % 50 % phosphoric acid ph adjustment only qs di water qs . performance ph lo ( cm ) ls ( cm ) lt ( cm ) % curl reduction shine smoothness normal curly process e 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 14 . 5 21 . 43 % ++ ++ hair process f 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % +++ +++ 20 vol / 6r process e 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++ ++ color treated process f 4 . 49 10 . 0 13 . 5 11 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ hair process g 4 . 49 13 . 0 20 . 0 15 . 0 28 . 57 % ++++ ++++ 2x bleached hair process e 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++ ++ 40 vol process f 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ process g 4 . 49 14 . 0 18 . 0 16 . 0 50 . 00 % ++++ ++++ different processes tested process e : wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess water and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a moisturizing leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry hair in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process f wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly and comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioning masque . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry in high heat . take thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . process g wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride product thoroughly with a tint brush . comb hair through to ensure that all hair fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and flat iron at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes , make sure that all the fibers are passed through the heat evenly . section hair and apply the deep conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . % curl reduction evaluation : lo = initial length of curly hair ls = length of hair @ 100 % curl reduction lt = length of treated curly hair % ⁢ ⁢ curl ⁢ ⁢ reduction = lt - lo ls - lo ⨯ 100 shine and smoothness evaluation : grading 0 % ± 0 - 20 % + 20 - 40 % ++ 40 - 60 % +++ 60 - 80 % ++++ 80 - 100 % +++++ the data in table v shows the different methods of treatment application to enhance the conditioning effects with the fluoride treatment . all treatment methods e , f and g increase the conditioning and smoothing effects of hair . based on the results it appears that method g is the best where the fluoride is crosslinked first to the hair and the conditioning agents are further crosslinked by the fluoride . this multi - crosslinking effect of fluoride between the hair and the conditioning agent creates longer lasting effects between washes . comparative results with just hair conditioning treatments of masking or rinse off conditioners shows a temporary effect that does not last more than one or two shampoos . the fluoride crosslinked hair will have a strong affinity to bind different molecules , such as conditioning , antistatic , volumizing ingredients , keratin proteins and non - keratinous proteins . the crosslinking of fluoridated keratin reacts with functional groups of strong cationic character , such amino , mono or divalent cations forming strong ligand structures within the air . the formation of these additional structures will restructure hair and produce effects of increased softness , manageability and tensile strength . methods of sodium fluoride application on hair for maximum conditioning / smoothing effects wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly . and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . rinse with luke warm water and towel blot excess water . apply a leave - on conditioner and detangle the hair with the comb . blow dry with medium heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a preheated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash the hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry in medium heat up to 95 % dry . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque with a tint brush . comb through so that all the fibers are covered with deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque . process for 10 min and rinse with luke warm water . towel blot excess water and blow dry with high heat . take thin sections and iron hair with a pre - heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . after 48 hours wash hair with sulfate free shampoo and conditioner . wash hair with clarifying shampoo . towel blot excess and blow dry hair in medium heat up to 95 % dy . apply the fluoride composition product on hair thoroughly and comb through to ensure that all the fibers are saturated with the product . process for 35 min . keep the hair straight during process time . towel blot excess product and apply a leave - on conditioner . comb through so that all the fibers are saturated . towel blot excess and blow dry up to 95 % dry . take very thin sections and iron hair with a pre heated flat iron with a minimum of 7 - 8 passes , making sure that all the fibers are passed through evenly . section hair and apply a deep conditioner , reconstructor or conditioning masque and process for 10 minutes . rinse with luke warm water and style as desired . detection of fluoride ion in normal , colored and bleached single treated hair fibers with composition ii , 0 . 75 % na f @ ph 4 . 51 analysis of fluoride ion in single treated hair initially and after hair type : normal , 20 vol / 6r color treated and 2x bleached hair . variations : 1 treatment ; 3 wash ; 5 wash ; 10 wash and 15 washes buffer solution : 25 ml . tisab ii + 25 ml . di h 2 o for immersing the hair sample for 48 hours . standards for calibration : 2 , 4 , 6 , 10 , 20 ( μg / ml ) fluoride ion all the hair swatches were washed with an alkaline shampoo at ph 8 . 09 . the controls and the samples to be treated were dried to 95 % with blow dryer , at medium heat setting . the hair swatches ( approximately 5 inch in width ) were treated with composition ii ( 0 . 75 % naf ) ph = 4 . 51 . processed for 35 min . towel blot excess . dried up to 95 % dry with blow dryer at medium heat followed with flat ironing small sections of hair at approximately 430 ° f . with 7 - 8 passes . after 48 hours the hair was rinsed with copious amounts of water and hair was dried at ambient conditions and cut into small 1 / 16 ″ sections . the hair was further equilibrated under ambient conditions for 8 hours and hair samples weighed about 0 . 5 grams and were immersed into 50 ml of buffer solutions 1 : 1 total ionic strength adjustment buffer ( tisab ii ): deionized water for 48 hours . direct analysis of the fluoride ion was carried out in the leached solutions using the fluoride ion selective electrode potentiometric method ( astm d 1179 - 72 ) approved by the american society of testing and materials . the hair swatches were washed 3x , 5x , 10x and 15 x , and the hair was dried with blow dryer between the washes . the multi washed hair samples were analyzed as above . the data in table vi shows that fluoride is detected in normal , colored and bleached hair treated hair . based on the assay results about 3 , 400 μmoles f / g hair is detected in water / buffer leaches of normal and color treated hair . this is compared to 1 , 800 μmoles f / g hair for bleached hair . this detection of fluoride in treated hair even after fifteen washes suggest that stable crosslinking has occurred and it is resistant to conventional shampooing and conditioning . the detection of fluoride in the buffer / water leaches is about 42 - 46 % after fifteen shampoos showing slow rate of depletion or leaching of fluoride from hair . based on these observations long lasting results of up to fifteen or more shampoos should be expected from a single treatment . procedure : hair for tensile testing was prepared with five bundles of twelve hair fibers ( total of 60 fibers ) of similar texture with normal , 20 volume , 2 × bleached hair . the bundles were immersed in water for 1 - 2 hours and the initial wet tensile strength of all the bundles was evaluated at 20 % extension using an instron model 1122c5054 at 0 . 5 inch / minute . the bundles after 24 hours were washed , blow dried with a paddle brush to about 95 % and the naf composition i at ph 4 . 50 was applied with the tint brush and processed for 35 minutes . after the excess product was towel blotted and blow dried to about 95 % with medium heat using a paddle brush , each bundle were flat ironed at approximately 430 ° c . with 7 - 8 passes . after 24 hours , the fibers were soaked in di water and after 45 minutes the tensile strength of bundles was determined under the identical conditions . the tensile strength of bundles was determined versus untreated fibers with composition i . the wet tensile strength of each bundle was calculated as 20 % index given below : the tensile strength studies showed that statistically a single treatment of normal , colored and bleached hair with the fluoride composition i statistically and significantly improved the tensile strength . the wet strength is attributed by adding support to the alpha helical crosslinks of cystine . this is not an expected effect for wet strength since all secondary bonds should be minimized in water . it is interesting that formaldehyde has significantly decreased the tensile strength of hair which suggests the weakening of these crosslinks . this supports our understanding that the crosslinking reactions and mechanism between the fluoride and formaldehyde is different . differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) techniques published earlier by cao ( j . cao , melting study of the α crystallites in human hair by dsc , thermody . acta , 335 ( 1999 ) and f . j . wortmann , ( f . j wortmann , c . springob , and g . sendlebach , investigations of cosmetically treated human hair by dsc in water , iffcc . ref 12 ( 2000 ) are used to study the structural changes of hair by measuring the thermal decomposition pattern or behavior . the thermal stability of hair is evaluated by measuring the amount of thermal energy required for denaturation or phase transition . the technique measures the amount of heat transferred into and out of a sample in a comparison to a reference . the heat transfer in ( endothermic ) and out ( exothermic ) is detected and recorded as a thermogram of heat flow versus temperature . the technique gives valuable information on the morphological components of hair of feughelman &# 39 ; s accepted two phase filament matrix model for hair ( m . feugelman , a two phase structure for keratin fibers , text . res . 1 , 29 , 223 - 228 , 1959 ). this two phase model includes the crystalline filaments ( alpha helical proteins ) or traditionally referred to as microfibrils which are embedded in an amorphous matrix . the dsc data technique yields thermogram data on the denaturation temperature t m and the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) of hair . it is concluded that the thermogram data of the denaturation temperature t m of hair is dependent on the crosslink density of the matrix in which surrounds the microfibrils or crystalline filaments . also , the denaturation enthalpy ( delta h ) depends on the strength of the crystalline filaments or microfibrils . it has been shown that cosmetic treatments , such as bleaching or perming , effect these morphological components selectively and differently at different rates causing changes in denaturation temperatures and in heat flow . dsc was use to analyze the effects of naf treatment on normal , 20 volume color treated and four times bleached hair . the treatment included process a using composition i at 1 % naf at ph 4 . 50 . the hair after 48 hours was rinsed and dried at ambient temperature conditions and relative humidity ( 20 c .°, 65 % rh ). the hair samples were cut into small pieces of about 2 mm in length and about 4 - 7 mg weighed into aluminum pans followed with capping . the hair samples were analyzed using perkin elmer diamond dsc instrument and a method of 50 c .° to 280 c .° at 20 c .°/ minute using an empty capped aluminum pan as reference . the obtained dsc thermograms for treated and untreated hair samples showed single endothermic ( absorbed thermal energy ) denaturation temperatures t m ranging from 178 to 189 c .° and delta h from 154 to 340 ( j / g ). the comparative tabulated data below for normal untreated and treated hair shows differences in the denaturation temperatures of 178 . 88 and 184 . 33 c .°, respectively , with no differences in the delta h . this is due to changes in the crosslink density of the matrix attributed by an increase in the crosslink density of the matrix proteins with naf . based on the delta h it is assumed that the intermediate filaments or alpha helical protein regions or microfilaments are not affected . the results for 20 volume color treated and untreated hair show significant statistically changes in the delta h ( p = 0 . 00019 ) of 226 . 53 and 270 . 01 ( j / g ) and no changes in the denaturation temperature . this observation suggests that the effects of naf on 20 volume color treated hair are primarily on the alpha helical protein regions with no effect on the matrix proteins . the multi bleached hair fibers show statistically differences in the denaturation temperatures 187 . 76 and 181 . 49 c .° and delta h 260 . 28 and 318 . 16 ( j / g ) between untreated and treated samples . this observation suggests that both the matrix proteins and the alpha - helical proteins are affected by the naf treatment . this data is in good agreement with previously reported data by humphries et al . jscc , 1972 on oxidized and colored dried hair showing higher denaturation temperatures and delta h . the explanation may be explained by an increase in crosslinked bridges between the polypeptide chains giving more structural support . this appears to be the same observation with the naf increasing the overall support for hair through crosslinking on the matrix proteins and alpha helical regions of the hair . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present disclosure . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the disclosure . accordingly , the present disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications , and variances that fall within the scope of the disclosure .
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
Should this patent be classified under 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
7fe2c289f5e1c310f1f825a576e46784aeeaecfcea17eebd6b0f75a7dac1475f
0.017944
0.172852
0.000828
0.455078
0.0065
0.265625
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.029785
0.086426
0.00592
0.022949
0.007111
0.121582
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.029785
0.03064
0.005554
0.000969
0.007111
0.019775
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.00592
0.00592
0.000246
0.000038
0.001755
0.007355
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.029785
0.012024
0.005554
0.044678
0.007111
0.121582
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Should this patent be classified under 'Human Necessities'?
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.018311
0.015869
0.001099
0.004608
0.003281
0.046631
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.027954
0.054199
0.000969
0.006683
0.014038
0.049561
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Is 'Human Necessities' the correct technical category for the patent?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.00592
0.022339
0.000246
0.001205
0.001755
0.003082
null
in carrying out my invention i show in fig1 a scrapper module a , a ware washing module b , and a two compartment ware rinsing and sanitizing module c . the module a , is arcuate in shape and it is possible to have the other two modules also arcuate in shape if desired . i disclose arcuate - shaped racktype modulars in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , issued oct . 12 , 1976 . a rack feeding table 1 is connected to the scrapper a , and the operator can move the rack through the curtained entrance opening 2 and into the interior of the scrapper . a rack - receiving table 3 is connected to the exit end of the ware rinsing module c and receives the racks passing through the curtained outlet opening 4 . in fig4 a schematic view of the entire dishwasher is shown while in fig3 a more detailed sectional view of the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c , is illustrated . a pawl carrying bar d is reciprocated by a lever 5 , pivoted at 6 , and a motor 7 actuates a gear mechanism 8 , including a crank , not shown for oscillating the lever which in turn reciprocates the rack moving bar d . the particular type of mechanism for reciprocating the pawl carrying bar d , is disclosed in the george j . federighi and tore h . noren u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , issued sept . 21 , 1954 of which i was one of the joint inventors . the disclosure of this patent is made a part of the mechanism that reciprocates the pawl carrying bar d for stepwise advancing the ware - carrying racks through the scrapper , ware washer and the two compartment rinsing and sanitizing module c . the bar d pivotally carries a plurality of spaced apart pawls 9 , that successively engage with the ware - carrying racks e to stepwise advance the racks from left to right in fig3 as the bar is reciprocated . the bar reciprocating mechanism 5 - 8 will automatically stop actuating the bar d , should the racks e , or bar become jammed . this mechanism is shown in detail in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 689 , 639 , and is made a part of this specification . i provide a reciprocating bar d , for each of the modules a , b and c , and when these modules are bolted together to make up the complete dishwasher , the bar d of each module is adjustably connected to the bar in the adjacent unit . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 in fig9 of each patent illustrates how the adjustable connection is made between adjacent bars d , and that disclosure is made a part of the present invention . referring to the schematic showing of the entire dishwasher in fig4 the interconnected bars d , of the several modulars are shown as a single bar d , which is reciprocated by the mechanism shown at 5 - 8 in fig3 . the rack pawls 9 are not shown in fig4 . the scrapper module a removes the food soil from the ware carried by the racks and this food soil is dropped upon an inclined screen shown by dotted lines 10 in the schematic view of fig4 . the module a has upper and lower spray arms f , and a two horse power motor driven pump 11 takes hot water from the tank 12 , underlying the scrapper compartment 13 , and forces this hot water through the two spray arms at about 300 gallons per minute to remove the food soil from the ware in the racks e . a float valve 14 controls the level of hot water in the tank 12 and when the water level drops below a predetermined level , the float valve actuates a mechanism for opening a valve , not shown , for permitting fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., to flow through an inlet pipe 15 that delivers the water to the tank 12 . any excess water in the tank will flow into a scrap catchment , shown schematically at g , in fig4 . the food soil is retained in a removable perforated basket 16 which may be removed from time to time as shown in fig1 so as to clean out the food soil therefrom . the waste water will flow from the basket and scrap attachment into a drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the scrapper a forms no part of my present invention except in so far as it cooperates with the entire dishwasher and forms an operative part thereof . the scrapper a is shown and described in detail in my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , and forms a part of the present disclosure . in fact , the scrapper a , in fig1 is shown arcuate in shape and has an arcuate - shaped reciprocating bar d . the two patents just mentioned , likewise show an arcuate - shaped scrapper and therefore the details of the scrapper shown in these patents becomes a part of the present disclosure . the ware washing module b , is bolted to the scrapper module a , and the adjacent sides of the two modules have registering openings that permit the racks in the scrapper to be moved into the washing module . ths reciprocating arcuate bar d , in the scrapper is adjustably connected to the reciprocating bar d , in the washing module . my two u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 and no . 3 , 985 , 226 , illustrate the washer module b in detail and the disclosure of these two patents becomes a part of the present invention . the washing module b , has a wash compartment 18 overlying a wash water receiving tank 19 , see fig4 . a motor driven two horsepower pump 20 , receives wash water from the tank 19 and forces this water through pipes 21 into upper and lower wash spray arms h , for washing the ware , the water being returned to the tank 19 and being used again . a float valve 22 is shown diagrammatically in fig4 and is placed in the wash tank 19 for actuating mechanism , not shown , for delivering fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., through a pipe 23 into the wash tank . the hot wash water in the tank 19 is maintained at a temperature of 140 ° f ., by two 5 kw hot water heaters 24 that are thermostatically controlled by a means , not shown . an overflow drain pipe 25 , is positioned in the wash tank 19 and is in communication with the drain pipe 17 for conveying excess water to the sewer . a screen , shown by the dotted lines 26 &# 39 ; in fig4 is positioned in the wash module b , and is positioned above the water level in the wash tank 19 . the racks e , are stepwise advanced through the wash module b , so that the ware is effectively washed . a liquid detergent is mixed in proper proportion with the fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., that enters the wash tank inlet pipe 23 . the pump 20 keeps recirculating the hot detergent water through the spray arms h , in the wash module while the racks e are moved therethrough . the double compartment ware rinsing module c , is the novel feature of the present invention . fig2 and 3 illustrate in detail the structure of the module and fig3 shows an entrance opening 26 in the module that registers with an exit opening 27 in the module b . the reciprocating pawl carrying bar d , in the module c , is adjustably connected to the bar d , in the module b . the pawls 9 on the bar will engage the rack e only when the bar is moving to the right in fig3 . this will cause the ware carrying racks to be stepwise moved through the module c , as the bar is reciprocated by the mechanism 5 - 8 . the module c has a left - hand compartment j , in fig3 in which the washed rack of ware is first received . the compartment j has a fresh hot water supply pipe 28 for delivering hot water at 140 ° f ., to initially the tank 29 that underlies the compartment . a pump 30 removes hot water from the tank 30 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms k for rinsing the ware in the rack e and removing any detergent . the compartment j is called the primary rinse . the water level in the primary tank 29 is generally indicated by the dotted lines 31 in fig4 . the pawl carrying bar d moves the rinsed ware from the primary rinse compartment j , into a secondary rinse compartment l in which fresh hot water at 140 ° f ., and chlorine is sprayed against the ware for sanitizing the ware . the fresh hot water is delivered into a tank 32 &# 39 ; that underlies the compartment l , and i show a feedwater pipe 32 for this purpose . a chlorine dispenser m , delivers the proper amount of chlorine through a pipe 33 into the tank 32 &# 39 ; to mix with the fresh water at 140 ° f . in the tank . a pump 34 &# 39 ; removes the hot sanitized water from the tank 32 and forces this water through upper and lower spray arms n for sanitizing the ware in the final rinse compartment l . the rinsed and sanitized ware is then delivered to the rack receiving table 3 . a magnetic switch 34 is placed in the second rinse compartment l , see fig4 and starts the flow of chlorine and feedwater and operation of the pump 34 &# 39 ; when a rack e is moving through the compartment and swings a magnet 35 past the switch to close an electric circuit to the pump . the hot water pipe 32 and the chlorine pipe 33 have valves , not shown , that control the flow of hot water and chlorine into the tank 32 &# 39 ; in a predetermined manner . the hot rinse water in the tank 32 will receive hot water from the pipe 32 during the secondary rinsing in compartment l , and the excess hot water will pass through an overflow opening 36 , see fig4 in the partition 37 that separates the tank 29 from the tank 32 &# 39 ; to provide the water for the primary rinse in compartment . the overflow of hot water from the tank 29 will enter a pipe 38 that will convey the hot water to the tank a where it will flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank to wash the debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g . my u . s . pat . no . 3 , 949 , 770 , issued apr . 13 , 1976 , on an arcuate - shaped modulars for a commercial dishwashing machine shows the inclined screen in fig1 b of that patent and further shows the hot water conveying pipe delivering the water onto the screen . the tanks 12 , 19 , 29 and 32 &# 39 ; have drain valves 39 which may be opened during non - use of the system for draining water from the tanks into the drain pipe 17 that connects with a sewer . the hot water at 140 ° f ., flows through the feedwater pipe 32 into the secondary rinse each time a rack e passes therethrough . the tank 32 &# 39 ; in the secondary rinse then becomes overfull and the hot water will overflow into the primary rinse tank 29 . this will change the water in both of these tanks 29 and 32 &# 39 ; to keep it fresh . the hot overflow water from the tank 29 will enter the bypass pipe 38 and flow over the inclined screen 10 in the tank 12 to move any debris on the screen into the scrap catchment g while the hot water will drain through the screen to replenish the water in the wash tank 12 and to raise its temperature . if the scrapper module a , is not used , the water in the bypass pipe 38 would be delivered to the sewer . the dishwasher shown in fig4 is equipped with an energy saving automatic shut - off device . when a rack e is moved into the scrapper module a , it will actuate an adjustable magnetic switch timer in addition to starting the pumps and the pawl carrying bars d . the adjustable timer will turn the machine off at a pre - set time interval if another rack e is not inserted into the machine . as soon as another rack is entered into the machine , the timer will be reset . the timer p does not effect the tank heat , since it only controls the pumps and the pawl - carrying bars d . in fig5 to 9 inclusive , i show different arrangements of the modules a , b and c shown in fig1 . anyone of these three modules may be either in a 90 ° arc or a straight module . fig5 shows the same general arrangement of the modules a , b and c , as are shown in fig1 while in fig6 the washing module b , is shown forming a 90 ° arc . in fig7 all three modules a , b , and c form a straight line . fig8 illustrates how the three modules a , b , and c can be arranged to occupy the corner 40 of a room and thus use space that would normally be lost . in fig9 the arrangement of the three modules show how the rack feeding table 1 for the soiled dishes can be positioned on one side of a partition 41 while the rack receiving table 3 is on the other side of the same partition . an opening 42 in the partition permits the two modules a and b to be joined and extend through the opening . such an arrangement permits the soiled dishes to enter the dishwasher on the unsanitary side of the partition 41 while the rinsed and sanitized dishes are removed from the table 3 on the sanitary side of the partition .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
9178b551e0b1762413c2fcb1aff388fa20c8100f5d13ecfc34c4041103ac4a45
0.029785
0.123535
0.005554
0.084961
0.007111
0.206055
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.396484
0.001549
0.554688
0.000368
0.242188
0.001549
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.28125
0.003937
0.542969
0.000587
0.188477
0.007111
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.289063
0.000315
0.539063
0.000003
0.188477
0.000999
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
Is 'Fixed Constructions' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.245117
0.004211
0.378906
0.000645
0.15918
0.004761
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.28125
0.002548
0.542969
0.000109
0.188477
0.00383
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Is 'Chemistry; Metallurgy' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.134766
0.016968
0.255859
0.027222
0.098145
0.031982
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Is 'Chemistry; Metallurgy' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is 'Electricity' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.134766
0.000009
0.255859
0.000021
0.098145
0.000038
null
embodiments of the present method and composition are a description of reducing graphene oxide to graphene in high boiling point solvents . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , graphene oxide decomposes to graphene when heated to temperatures around 200 ° c . when graphene oxide decomposes to graphene , however , it is desirable to keep the graphene as a dispersion so that it can be more easily used in commercial products . one way to reduce graphene oxide to graphene is to deoxygenate the graphene oxide . graphene oxide typically appears as water dispersible sheets . the graphene oxide may be reduced to graphene by deoxygenating the graphene oxide sheets to obtain sheets of graphene . when reducing the graphene oxide to graphene , graphene platelets tend to clump up or agglomerate . as mentioned , it is desirable to keep the graphene oxide as a dispersion as the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene . a method that may lead to the production of dispersible sheets of graphene involves dispersing graphene oxide in water to achieve a dispersion of single graphene oxide sheets and then adding a high boiling point solvent to the dispersion to form a solution . the high boiling point solvent may be a solvent with a boiling point of approximately 200 ° c . or higher . because the solvent has a high boiling point , the solution may be heated to approximately 200 ° c . without boiling off the solvent while deoxygenating the graphene oxide and ultimately to arriving at dispersible graphene . a more detailed description of this method follows . turning to fig1 , which is a flow chart that depicts a first embodiment 100 of a method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 110 , a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . sonication as described herein may comprise inducing cavitation through the use of ultrasound for the purpose of achieving a dispersion . the graphene oxide may be in the form of water dispersible sheets . dispersing the graphene oxide by sonication may result in a dispersion comprised of single platelets of graphene oxide . the single platelets of graphene oxide may form a more stable dispersion . a stable dispersion of graphene oxide may be amenable to forming a dispersion of graphene . a ratio of water to graphene oxide in the dispersion may be approximately one milligram of graphene oxide to approximately one milliliter of water a solvent may be added to the dispersion 120 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methylpyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethylpyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to the amount of the dispersion . thus if the dispersion is comprised of one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide , a volume or amount of solvent that is approximately equivalent to one milliliter of water and one milligram of graphene oxide may be added to the dispersion . at this point the solution may be comprised of a mixture with a value that is approximately half graphene oxide / water dispersion and half high boiling point solvent . the solution may be gradually heated to approximately 200 ° c . 130 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . water may be removed via evaporation from the solution as the solution is heated . as water is removed , the temperature of the solution is expected to rise . as the temperature rises the graphene oxide deoxygenates . when the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at approximately 200 ° c . for a period of time 140 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the solution temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . because the reduction may still comprise solvent , the reduction may be purified to remove as much of the remaining solvent as possible 150 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction . the reduction may also be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged as part of the purification process . the end result of the purification process may be a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . turning to fig2 , which is a flow - chart that depicts a second embodiment 200 of the method of reducing graphene oxide to graphene . in step 210 of the method a dispersion is created . the dispersion may be comprised of water dispersible sheets of graphene oxide dispersed into water by sonication . the ratio of water to graphene oxide may be approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide to approximately one milligram of water . a solvent may be added to the dispersion 220 to form a solution . the solvent may be a water miscible solvent , such as , for example n - methlypyrrolidone , ethylene glycol , glycerin , dimethlypyrrolidone , acetone , tetrahydrofuran , acetonitrile , dimethylformamide , an amine or an alcohol . the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately equivalent to one half the amount of the dispersion . the if the dispersion is comprised of approximately two milligrams of graphene oxide and approximately one milligram of water , the amount of solvent added to the dispersion may be approximately one half the volume or amount of approximately two milligrams of graphene and approximately one milligram of water . the solution may be gradually heated 230 . in some embodiments , the solution may be heated in an autoclave or high pressure chamber . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate , heating the solution in a pressurized environment may raise the boiling point of the solution , including the solvent . thus , the boiling point of the solution may reach or exceed 200 ° c . if the solution is heated in a pressurized environment , a solvent with a boiling point that is slightly below 200 ° c . may be used . as the solution is heated the solution may be stirred . as the solution is heated and stirred water may evaporate from the solution . as water evaporates from the solution , an amount of solvent approximately equivalent to an amount of evaporated water may be added to the dispersion . the steps of gradually heating the solution , stirring the solution and adding solvent to replace evaporated water may continue until the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . when the temperature reaches approximately 200 ° c . a reduction may be formed . as the solution is heated , the surface of the graphene oxide may be functionalized , which may result in less clumping of the platelets in the final product . in an embodiment , the temperature may be held at 200 ° c . for a period of time 240 to aid in functionalization of the reduction . in some embodiments the temperature may be held for as little as one hour . in other embodiments the temperature may be held as long as twenty - four hours . in still other embodiments the temperature may be held only a moment once the temperature of the solution reaches approximately 200 ° c . to form a reduction . the reduction may be removed from the heat to allow cooling . the cooled reduction may be purified 260 . purifying the reduction may comprise filtrating the reduction in an effort to remove solvent remaining in the reduction . the reduction may be re - disbursed in acetone and may be centrifuged to recover a solid . the solid may be graphene comprising trace amounts of the solvent . the present method and composition are not limited to the particular details of the depicted embodiments and other modifications and applications are contemplated . certain other changes may be made in the above - described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present method and composition herein involved . it is intended , therefore , that the subject matter in the above depiction shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
Should this patent be classified under 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
eef691fab9b0c3974809c34e23e1d992d28a307f8475d1ff4ea6a7e493359aac
0.28125
0.029297
0.542969
0.119141
0.188477
0.057373
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.347656
0.078125
0.339844
0.000938
0.326172
0.047363
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Performing Operations; Transporting'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.269531
0.002884
0.515625
0.000778
0.302734
0.013611
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.277344
0.000345
0.515625
0.000033
0.302734
0.000519
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Is 'Physics' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Textiles; Paper'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.146484
0.002396
0.141602
0.000732
0.183594
0.005371
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Should this patent be classified under 'Physics'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Fixed Constructions'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.200195
0.033203
0.496094
0.031738
0.210938
0.068359
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.269531
0.000805
0.515625
0.000357
0.302734
0.011353
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Physics'?
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Electricity'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.269531
0.000969
0.515625
0.000051
0.302734
0.00383
null
as shown in fig1 , my invention uses a generic 3d shape model 101 and a lambertian or diffuse reflectance illumination model 102 for photometrically normalizing images of objects , e . g ., faces . in the illumination model 102 diffuse reflectance has a constant bi - directional reflectance distribution function ( brdf ). these models are used for object identification . the example application used to describe my invention is face identification and / or verification . there , the problem is to match an unknown face image to images in a database of known face images . a face can have some specular reflection , due to secretion of sebum oil by sebaceous glands in the skin . however , the specular reflection is not always consistent . therefore , the specular reflection is of little use in face identification . hence , my illumination model 102 includes only lambertian and ambient components . as shown in fig2 , let i ( x , y ) be the intensity at a pixel ( x , y ) in an input image 201 corresponding to a point on a surface of a convex object , e . g ., a face or the equivalent 3d shape model 101 with the lambertian surface reflectance 102 . the point is illuminated by a mixture of ambient light and a single principal light source 103 at infinity in a direction sε 3 , with intensity | s |. i designate a unit surface normal n = s /| s | as a direction from the point to the principal light source , i . e ., pointing out . this direction , e . g ., in azimuth / elevation angles , is my main estimand of interest . the magnitude of the light source is of little consequence for our method because the magnitude can be absorbed by the imaging system parameters that model gain and exposure . let ρ ( x , y ) be the albedo 221 of the skin surface , which is either known or is otherwise estimated . albedo is the fraction of incident light that is reflected by the surface , and for faces , albedo represents diffuse skin texture . therefore albedo - map and texture - map are synonymous . let n ( x , y ) 231 be the unit surface normal of the point on the facial surface that projects onto the pixel i ( x , y ) in the image , under orthography . under the lambertian model with a constant brdf , a monochrome intensity of the pixel is given by i ( x , y )= α { ρ ( x , y )[ max ( n ( x , y ) t s , 0 )+ c ]}+ β , ( 1 ) where α and β represent intrinsic camera system parameters , i . e ., lens aperture and gain . in my analysis , the parameters α and β are essentially nuisance parameters , which only effect the dynamic range or ( gain ) and offset ( exposure bias ) of pixel intensity but not the lighting direction . therefore , i can set ( α , β ) to their default values of ( 1 , 0 ) with proper normalization . the parameter c represents a relative intensity of the ambient illumination , as described below , and can be set to zero , if necessary . the term max ( n ( x , y ) t s sets negative values of the lambertian cosine factor to zero for surface points that are in a shadow . for simplicity , i assume that only the single principal light source 103 is responsible for the majority of the observed directional lighting in the image , i . e ., diffuse attenuation and / or shadowing . any other ambient light sources present in the scene , e . g ., diffuse or directional , are non - dominant . hence , the overall contribution of the other ambient light sources is represented by a global ambient component with relative intensity c in equation ( 1 ). nearly all 2d view - based face identification systems are adversely affected by directional lighting , but to a much lesser extent by subtle ambient lighting effects , see phillips et al . above . therefore , in most cases , the direction to the principal lighting source is more important than any other lighting phenomena , especially when the other light sources are non - dominant . therefore , the invention reverses the effect of the principal illumination . this improves the performance of identifying objects that are illuminated arbitrarily . the direction 251 to the principal lighting source is estimated by a least - squares formulation with simplifying assumptions based on the illumination model 102 as expressed by equation ( 1 ). more important , i solve this problem efficiently in a closed form with elementary matrix operations and dot - products . specifically , as shown in fig2 , i construct 210 a column intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 of pixel intensities by ‘ stacking ’ all the non - zero values an input image i ( x , y ) 201 . if i assume that the object is lit only by the principal light source 103 , i . e ., there is no ambient light , then zero - intensity pixels are most likely in a shadow . therefore , these pixels cannot indicate the direction to the principal light source , unless ray - casting is used locate the light source . in practical applications , there always is some amount of ambient light . therefore , i can use a predetermined non - zero threshold or a predetermined mask for selecting pixels to stack in the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )}. similarly , i construct 220 an albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 to be the corresponding vectorized albedo map or diffuse texture 221 . i generate 230 a 3 - column shape matrix n 231 by row - wise stacking of the corresponding surface normals of the shape model 101 . then , i construct 240 a shape - albedo matrix aε p × 3 , where each row α in the matrix a 241 is a product of the albedo and the unit surface normal in the corresponding rows of the albedo vector { right arrow over ( ρ )} 222 and the shape matrix n 231 . this corresponds to the element - wise hadamard matrix product operator o : to determine 250 the unknown direction s * 251 to the principal light source , i use a matrix equation for least - squares minimization of an approximation error in equation ( 1 ) in the vectorized form arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢  i → - α ⁢ ⁢ c ⁢ ⁢ ρ → - as  , ( 2 ) s *=( a t a ) − 1 a t ( { right arrow over ( i )}− αc { right arrow over ( ρ )}− as ), ( 3 ) note that i am only interested in the estimated unit light source vector s */| s *| for its direction and not the magnitude . the magnitude depends on specific camera gain and exposure . this estimation problem is ‘ well - behaved ’ because it is heavily over - constrained . that is , the number of non - zero elements in { right arrow over ( i )} ‘ observations ’ is on the order of o ( 10 3 ) as compared to the three unknowns in s *. in fact , because i only use the direction to the principle light source , there are only two angular estimands : azimuth and elevation . the estimate of the principal lighting direction is therefore quite stable with respect to noise and small variations in the input { right arrow over ( i )}. note that the albedo - shape matrix a 241 comes from the generic shape model 101 and albedo 221 . hence , the shape - albedo matrix a 241 represents the entire class of objects , e . g ., all frontal faces . assuming that the model 101 is adequately representative , there is no need to measure the exact shape or even exact albedo of an individual as long as all shapes and albedos are roughly equal to a first order as far as lighting direction is concerned . furthermore , the pseudo - inverse ( a t a ) − 1 in equation ( 3 ) is directly proportional to the error covariance of the least - squares estimate s * under gaussian noise . if i define a matrix p = a ( a t a ) − 1 , of dimensions p × 3 , then i see that the only on - line computation in equation ( 3 ) is the projection of the intensity vector { right arrow over ( i )} 211 on the three columns of the matrix p , which are linearly independent . in fact , the three columns are basic functions for the illumination subspace of my generic face model . moreover , i can always find an equivalent orthogonal basis for this subspace using a qr - factorization : p = qr , where the unitary matrix q has three orthonormal columns spanning the same subspace as the matrix p . the 3 × 3 upper triangular matrix r defines the quality of the estimates because r − 1 is a cholesky factor , i . e ., a matrix square root , of the error covariance . the qr - factorization aids the interpretation and analysis of the estimation in terms of pixels and bases because the input image is directly projected onto the orthonormal basis q to estimate the direction 251 to the principal light source 103 . the qr decomposition also saves computation in larger problems . because the matrices p and q are independent of the input data , the matrices can be predetermined and stored for later use . also , the computational cost of using equation ( 3 ) minimal . the computation requires only three image - sized dot - products . the subsequent relighting , described below , only requires a single dot - product . therefore , the lighting normalization according to the invention is practical for real - time implementation . as shown in fig3 , given the estimate s * 251 of the directional lighting in the input image 201 , i can approximately ‘ undo ’ the lighting ” by estimating 310 the albedo 311 or diffuse skin texture of the face , and then relight 320 this specific albedo , combined with the generic shape model 101 , under any desired illumination , e . g ., frontal or pure diffuse . whereas both generic shape and albedo were used in the inverse problem of estimating the directional lighting , only the generic shape 101 is needed in the forward problem of relighting the input image 201 , as the input image 201 itself provides the albedo information . the basic assumption here is that all objects have almost the same 3d geometry as defined by the generic shape model 101 . i find that moderate violations of this basic assumption are not critical because what is actually relighted to generate an illumination invariant template image is the texture as seen in the input image 201 . this texture carries most of the information for 2d object identification . in fact , it is not possible to drastically alter the albedo of the input image by using a slightly different 3d face shape . therefore , for faces , despite small variations in geometry for different individuals , an individual &# 39 ; s identity is substantially preserved , as long as the face texture is retained . referring back to equation ( 1 ), after i have a lighting estimate s * 251 and my ‘ plug - in ’ shape , i . e ., surface normals n 231 of the generic face model 101 , i can solve directly for albedo using ρ * = i - β α ⁡ ( n t ⁢ s * + c ) , ( 4 ) where for clarity the spatial indices ( x , y ) are not expressed for all 2d - arrays ( i , ρ , n ). here , it is assumed that the intensities are non - zero , and that n t s * is greater than zero . notice that the estimated albedo ρ * 311 at a point ( x , y ) depends only on the corresponding pixel intensity i ( x , y ) of the input image 201 and the surface normal n ( x , y ) 231 . thus , if a point on an object is in shadow , and there is no ambient illumination , then i is zero and n t s * is negative . in this case , the corresponding albedo cannot be estimated with equation ( 4 ), and a default average albedo is substituted in for the pixel corresponding to that point . the estimated albedo 311 is then used to generate 320 our invariant ( fixed - illumination ) image i o 322 i o = α o { ρ *[ max ( n t s o , 0 )+ c o ]}+ β o . ( 5 ) in equation ( 5 ) the variable s o 321 denotes the invariant direction to the desired source of principal illumination . the default direction is directly in front of the object and aligned with a horizontal axis through the object , i . e ., on - axis frontal lighting , and c o is the ambient component of the output image 322 . similarly α o and β o designate the format parameters of an output display device . it is also possible to model arbitrary ambient illumination as represented by the parameter c . by using a representative set of n training images , i can estimate numerically components of the ambient illumination using optimality criteria c * = arg ⁢ ⁢ min s ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  ρ i ⁡ ( c ) - 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ρ i ⁡ ( c )  2 , ( 6 ) where ρ i ( c ) denotes an albedo of the i th training image estimated with a relative ambient intensity c as defined in equation ( 3 ). the invention provides a simple and practical method for estimating a direction to a principal light source in a photometrically uncalibrated input image of an object such as a face . the exact shape and albedo ( surface texture ) of the object is unknown , yet the generic shape and albedo of the object class is known . furthermore , the method photometrically normalizes the input image for illumination - invariant template matching and object identification . the necessary computations require less than five dot - products for each pixel in the input image . the method has better performance for datasets of realistic access - control imagery , which exhibits complex real - world illumination environments . the performance enhancement is directly due to a tighter clustering of an individual &# 39 ; s images in image space , which will help sophisticated image matching and identification systems to achieve illumination invariance . results indicate that the estimation of lighting direction is relatively robust and the subsequent relighting normalization is feasible in real - time , with only a few simple dot product operations . the lighting normalization according to the invention is a viable and superior alternative to linear ramp and histogram equalization techniques of the prior art . although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Physics'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'General tagging of new or cross-sectional technology'?
0.25
a777b2f611bb858fec43e9e21b95b5c33e8e832b9c0bdacfedc89aa5da79d3fe
0.349609
0.178711
0.339844
0.077148
0.326172
0.233398
null
the simulation of varied military weapons and munitions is necessary for the proper training of troops . these simulated weapons must be realistic in providing a loud bang or report that would normally accompany their discharge , and also an accompanying smoke and / or dust cloud . at the same time the devices must be safe , not just in use , but when stored and transported by untrained recruits . for safety reasons , the devices described in this disclosure are powered by compressed gas , supplied in tanks or cartridges of various sizes . it is to be understood however , that the invention is not limited to this means of power , and the devices could be adapted to be powered by combustible materials and be within the ambit of the invention . although this invention is directed at producing simulated military devices , some preferred embodiments of the invention can be used for entertainment , in place of pyrotechnics . other preferred embodiments of the invention can also be used to project materials , such as confetti , where an accompanying loud sonic report is required . it should also be appreciated that although the preferred embodiments produce a loud sonic report and the transport of a payload , some preferred embodiments may do only one or the other . the invention and its many embodiments describe a method of separating the sonic report from the transport of payload . in this patent , payload can refer to any material that is transported out of the device , and can include particulate matter such as aggregate , baby powder , talc , or paper such as confetti or a liquid , aerosol , or gas . as described above , the creation of the sonic report is due mainly to propagation of a shock wave caused by the bursting of a burst disk . the use of a burst disk is the most practical and inexpensive method of ensuring a rapid release of compressed gas that is substantially instantaneous , that collides with the ambient air , thus creating a loud bang . to create a loud report , the escaping gas need only travel a short distance , but do so at high velocity . the requirement that it be at the highest possible velocity , means that it must be unencumbered by foreign material , such as parts of the payload . that is , it must not have been slowed down by entraining foreign materials , and accelerating them . the resonant frequency of the gas volume that powers the sonic stroke , immediately after the bursting of the burst disk is of importance , as the energy should be compressed into a relatively short pulse . also of importance is that the sonic report propagates in all directions , and that which returns back into the device , must be redirected back out of the barrel . as mentioned above , the transport of the payload requires a completely different energy regime . transport of the payload requires a long duration , steady flow of gas out of the device , and for this reason , the invention separate these two regimes . the invention can best be described by referring to the drawings that accompany this patent . fig1 incorporates many aspects of the invention . the device illustrated on fig1 can take many shapes and guises , and can for example have rocket fins and nosecones attached . the device illustrated in fig1 is comprised of a chamber or barrel 7 that contains the payload , in this case particular matter 3 , such as baby powder . the bottom portion of the device , referred to as the igniter , and identified as 1 a on fig1 , projects a vented lance 9 a , that either opens a valve 6 b attached to a compressed gas cartridge 6 , or pierces a seal that allows the compressed gas to exit the tank at relatively high volume . fig1 illustrates the igniter that is about to pierce the seal . the igniter in this embodiment of the invention includes a piston 10 that travels up and down , a cylinder 9 in response to a force 11 b that acts on the bottom of the piston 10 . this force 11 b can be supplied by a simple mechanical rod or be in the form of a gas or liquid volume , traveling up and down the tube 11 a , in the base 11 . fig1 illustrates the force 11 b acting in an upward direction that forces the piston 10 and the attached vented lance 9 a . fig1 also illustrates an optional spring 10 c , which compresses and resets the device upon recovery , after the upward force 11 b is relaxed . to prevent the escape of gas , “ o ” rings are employed at certain connections , where gas might otherwise escape and two such “ o ” rings are illustrated 10 a , 10 b . fig1 illustrates a gas relief valve 10 d , which allows the piston to travel up the cylinder , without compressing the gas above . the vented lance 9 a , that is suitable for piercing seal type gas cartridges 6 , is illustrated in more detail on fig4 . the vented lance 9 a has attached a rim 9 c that deflects the escaping gas into the waiting port and passage 8 a on fig1 . this rim 9 c prevents condensate , caused from the cool escaping gas , to enter between the piston 10 and cylinder 9 , which might otherwise seize them . the vented lance 9 a pierces the seal 6 a and allows the compressed gas to escape through the lance vents 9 b and exits as a stream 2 e . the compressed gas is then directed by rim 9 c to ports and passages 8 a in gas distributor 8 . fig1 shows two such ports 8 a , but many preferred embodiments can have any number of such means of transporting the gas . to prevent the fouling of the passages , an “ o ” ring 8 b is placed around the gas distributor in such a manner that when the gas is passing through the passage 8 a with sufficient force , it will radially expand the otherwise sealing “ o ” ring 8 b and unseat it allowing for the passage of gas around it , and into the chamber or barrel 7 . when the gas drops below a certain pressure , the “ o ” ring 8 b will reseal the passage and thereby prevent any particulate matter remaining in the chamber 7 from back flowing into the passage 8 a and beyond . some preferred embodiments include a retaining rim or pegs 8 c or other such restraining means , to ensure that the “ o ” ring 8 b does not roll up or down the gas distributor 8 , with it is in its expanded state . the gas passing out of the passage 8 will rapidly fluidize the material that has been placed in the canister 7 . the fluidizing of this material will greatly assist in later projecting it out of the gas projector 1 . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 includes a gas cartridge 6 that is contained within a holder 5 , but can of course be secured by many other convenient means . fig1 has attached to it or incorporated into it a dish shaped platform sa that is a sound and pressure reflector and that is referred to herein as a sonic energy concentrator . this dish or horn shaped form sa is meant to be illustrative of a large class of forms that focus or reflect sonic energy , including horns , bells to name just a few . other preferred embodiments may however utilize forms that are flat or convex ; to disperse the sound and make it more omni directional as it exits the chamber . the other purpose of the sonic energy concentrator sa is to establish a secondary resonant cavity between the said sonic energy concentrator and the burst disk 2 a it faces . since the gas pulse that gives rise to the shock front need only be short in length and duration , but high in velocity , it is advantageous to have a relatively short resonant cavity . it is to be understood that fig1 is only illustrative of one aspect of the invention , and that the size , shape and location , relative to the bottom surface of the burst disk 2 a will vary depending upon many factors , such as the size of the primary resonant cavity , the distance beneath the sonic energy concentrator sa , the pressures at which the system operates and the gas that is used as an energy source , to name a few . at the top of the cavity is located a burst hat 2 , that includes a burst disk 2 a , which is snapped into place over a small ledge sd , as illustrated on fig1 , or by other convenient means well known to the art . the burst hat 2 is shaped to seal with burst hat seal 4 , when the pressure in cavity 7 increases above the pressure outside the cavity . while fig1 illustrates a hat shaped burst disk , this is merely illustrative of a class of burst disks that can for example be simple wafer like disks sealed at their perimeters , by means well known to the art . the purpose of the burst disk is to contain the increasing pressure within the chamber as the compressed gas cartridge empties ; and then at some predetermined pressure , to fail suddenly , allowing the gas to escape out through the orifice 4 a . this burst disk serves as an inexpensive high speed valve , which of course some preferred embodiments might substitute . as described above , when the burst disk 2 a or substituted high speed valve opens , the high pressure gas accelerates quickly in the preferred embodiment , as there is no payload to impede it . this acceleration is aided by the tapered burst hat 2 that forms a venturi and the sonic energy concentrator with relatively short pulse resonance . a shock front is created when this high velocity gas meats the relatively slow moving ambient air , immediately adjacent to the boundary of the disk , when it breaks . the result is a shock front , shock wave and resulting sonic report . fig5 illustrates the system at the point that the piston 10 has moved up the cylinder 9 in response to upward force 11 b , causing the gas to escape from the breached seal 6 a , and the gas to pass into the chamber 7 , as above described . fig5 illustrates the burst seal having burst 2 c , the payload material 3 a starting to exit the chamber 7 . also illustrated between the sonic energy concentrator 5 a and the just burst disk , is the secondary resonant cavity , that quickly upon the bursting of the burst disk 2 a , assumes the role of a sound bell or horn , directing the sound of the shock wave produced , outward , away from the chamber 7 and accelerating the shock front formation . just after the burst disk 2 a fails 2 c and generally following the sonic report , the payload , in this example , particulate matter , having been already fluidized , is entrained by the large volume of slower moving , lower pressure gas , that then exits the chamber 7 , through the orifice 4 a . while the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 and fig5 illustrate a conic - cylindrical hat 2 that incorporates the burst disk 2 a , the hat can also contain part or the entire payload . while the preferred embodiment of the invention , has the escaping gas acting on the burst disk first , to create a loud report , as described above ; there may be circumstances where one may wish to project the material with higher or in a more clustered form , in which case it may be advantageous to fill the burst hat 2 with such material and contain it with a cover to form a burst hat container 2 j , such as a peal top 2 b , well known to the art . in such preferred embodiments , some or all of the other features of the invention may be utilized and therefore still be within the ambit of the invention . one embodiment of the invention is to convert the burst hat 2 into a burst hat container 2 j for the material 3 to be projected by the gas projector 1 by adding a peal top 2 b or other top that can be removed or pierced . in most cases the burst hat container 2 j is filled with the precise amount that will give a particular effect , for a particular device . these burst containers 2 j , can then be provided already packed in handy portions , and in most cases the user will simply empty the ideal portion into the chamber 7 , and then place the empty burst hat container 2 in the burst hat seal , as illustrated in fig1 . fig8 illustrates the packaging of the material in a way consistent with one of the preferred embodiments that is to ensure that the initial gas pulse that bursts the disk is unimpeded with payload . the burst hat container 2 j illustrated in fig8 has a partly or wholly vacant channel 2 h running from the peal top 2 b to the burst disk 2 a . the channel can be created by inserting a tube preferably made of material that will maintain its integrity only briefly to allow the initial pulse of gas to break the burst disk 2 a and create the shock front . the tube or member of other suitable shape can for example be made of paper or friable material such as ceramic or may simply be formed by pressing or adding a binder to the particular matter that forms the payload . for example , if the payload is talc , a tube might be pressed into the talk , after it is poured into the burst hat container 2 j , and then the surface of the tube so formed could be sprayed or imparted into it by other well know means , a binder , that would stabilize the tube , and yet , after providing a channel for the initial pulse of gas , collapse or partly collapse , so the material might better be transported out of the orifice in a uniform spray . the hole adjacent to the peal top 2 i shown in fig8 can extend through the top or can be broken open by simply pushing the inverted burst hat onto the shock tube 5 b . some embodiments of the invention include a shock tube 5 b as shown on fig6 , most of which include some means , such as a port 5 c for the gas to enter the lumen of the shock tube 5 b and gain access to the bottom of the shock disk 2 a . in the example illustrated on fig6 , this point of entry is a hole 5 c just above the sonic shock concentrator 5 a . other embodiments of the invention have no shock tube and rely instead on the channel 2 h as shown of fig8 , and simply have a whole 2 i precut or that can be easily removed prior to insertion . other embodiments have points of weakness around the hole that allow the cover of the hole 2 i to fail when the pressure begins to rise in the chamber . other embodiments utilize other methods well known to the art of packaging . as mentioned above , some embodiments of the invention rely on a high volume valve to control the emptying of the compressed gas cartridge 6 , rather than a pierce disk , as illustrated on fig1 . fig9 illustrates the system with such a valve 6 b , in this example connected directly to the said compressed gas cartridge 6 . fig9 includes an extension 6 c which is acted upon by the lance 9 a to open the flow of gas to the gas distributor , and in this example channel 8 a . the high volume valves are generally used for larger gas cartridges and the pierce disks for the smaller ones . fig9 also illustrates another embodiment of one aspect of the invention , being the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this embodiment , the device has a base which fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . these ease of installation means that various shaped sonic energy concentrators 5 a can be used to address particular performance requirements , such as the shape and intensity of the sound field generated by the device . for example , for some applications , a very narrowly focused , high intensity field will be required , necessitating a sonic energy concentrator with a deeper dish at the top of the unit . other applications would require a flatter or even convex surface to vary the shape and intensity of the sonic field . the design specifications of all these embodiments of the invention will depend upon the particular circumstances of the device dimensions , gas pressures used , type of energy inputs , to name just a few . fig1 is view of the principal components of a typical gas projection system . they are : the igniter unit , 1 a ; the gas delivery system , including the gas distributor , 1 b ; and the pressure release unit , 1 c . fig1 illustrates the typical igniter unit 1 a . in this example , illustrated in fig1 , the piston 10 movement is controlled by a fluid or gas entering the channel 11 a , via a tube or conduit 12 b . the controller 12 controls the delivery of this controlling gas or fluid and its design is well known to the art of fluid and gas controllers . in some embodiments , this controller can in turn be controlled by a more remote wireless , or wired device 12 a . although this example of the embodiment illustrated on fig1 utilizes a gas or fluid media to push up the piston 10 , other embodiments would utilize other means well known to the art to control the motion of the lance 9 a , and these might be wholly electric or such other means well known to the art . fig1 is meant to illustrate one embodiment of the invention that includes a redirecting means for the sonic energy and subsequently the matter that is ejected out of the chamber 7 of the gas projector 1 . in this example an auxiliary cap 13 is screwed onto the top of the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with treaded top . the flow of compressed gas 2 e passes the burst disk 2 c and then is redirected at 90 degrees , in approximately a 180 degree field by an approximately inverted conic section 13 b , and thence through ports of various sizes and locations , 13 a . fig1 also illustrates the use of a sonic energy concentrator 5 a of the type illustrated in fig9 , that fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . this example illustrates the many shapes the basic gas projector 1 can assume . in this case the base 11 is shaped like the head of an artillery shell . this preferred embodiment might be used to simulate a road - side bomb made from an artillery shell . this unit might be used to train soldiers on how to locate , avoid and disarm such devices . in this example , the embodiment illustrated includes a remote control device 12 and 12 a for igniting the unit , as earlier described . it is important to note that this example of a preferred embodiment of the invention uses the same burst hat 2 as in fig1 , and is retained by the same snap in ledge 5 d . fig1 illustrates an auxiliary cap 13 that has a more focused redirector . in this case a redirecting member 13 b turns the gas flow 2 e , at approximately right angles and redirects the flow out a port 13 a . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention that allows for redirection of the gas flow 2 e and various means of attaching the burst disk . in this embodiment of the invention the standard gas projector 1 is fitted with a high volume valve 6 c , with remote controller 12 and 12 a , with a base 11 shaped like an artillery shell . the burst hat seal 4 can accommodate a burst hat 2 , being retained by ledge 5 d ; or the wafer burst disk 2 g can alternatively clamped in by retainer ring 4 c . fig1 also illustrates a sonic energy concentrator that is meant to work most efficiently in the mode where the wafer like burst disk 2 g is located at the retention ring 4 c . for this preferred embodiment the sonic energy concentrator 5 a creates a very efficient secondary resonant cavity , and also acts as a broadcast horn to project the sound in the desired direction . fig1 also includes a redirecting member 13 b , which is in this case blended into the sonic energy concentrator . as can be readily appreciated , from the forgoing examples , the sonic energy concentrator can take many forms , but still be within the ambit of the invention . if the burst hat 2 is located in the burst hat seal 4 ; burst disk 4 c , is not normally used . however , for some applications a staged burst sequence might for certain applications be desired , especially where very high energy sonic booms are required . for these applications the secondary resonant chamber might be pumped by utilizing an intermittent pulse created by first pulsing the valve 6 c , and then using a high speed valve in place of the burst disk 2 a or alternatively , the burst disk 2 a might be of the split type , well known to the art , and disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 831 , 475 by richard i . daniel , that would permit intermittent opening and closing of the seal as the pressure in vessel 7 increased and then was relived by the temporary opening of the split seal , and as the pressure dropped with its release , the split seal would reseal , and the pressure would rebuild for another cycle . if a high speed electronically controlled valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 at the burst hat seal 4 and a electronically controlled high speed valve is used at 6 c , and perhaps a high speed valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 g , and the opening and closing of the valves are coordinated , to maximize resonance in the secondary resonant chamber , pumped by harmonic resonance in the primary resonant chamber 7 , then very intense sonic pulses can be created . the pulse finally exiting the orifice at 4 c , can also be transformed into a vortex , by attaching a vortex generator ring 4 b , described below . fig1 illustrates how a vortex ring might be attached or incorporated into the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with standard orifice 4 a , which has added a thin ring 4 b that is designed to slow the periphery of the gas flow 2 e as it exits the unit . as it does so , the centre of the gas flow speeds up relative to the flow on the periphery . if the flow of the gas 2 e , takes the form of short pulses , vortexes will be formed at each pulse . a vortex is very stable and can entrain particulate matter and carry it for distances far greater than a simple stream of gas , which quickly diffuses . this feature allows the invention to produce much more realistic mushroom clouds that occur with conventional explosions . the vortex also will impart a percussive impact which can be felt by a person its path . it is a feature of this invention that makes the device much more realistic in safely simulating the sounds , smoke and with this feature the percussive impact of an exploding device . the actual dimensions of the rings , to create such an effect for the many conditions that will arise for the various embodiments of the invention are well known to the art of vortex generation . suffice it to say , that these various implementations are all within the ambit of this invention . in fig1 a simple arrangement might be to have a burst hat 2 at burst hat seal 4 , and a vortex ring generator located at ring retainer 4 c . this arrangement would deliver a pulse to the vortex ring generator , with sonic concentration and horn amplification by the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . if a split type of burse disk is substituted for the burst seal 2 a in the burst hat 2 , and is located in burst hat seal 4 , the controller can direct the valve 6 c to release an intermittent pulse , which results in a series of reports . if a vortex generator is added at 4 c , these pulses can be converted in vortexes . fig1 illustrates how an auxiliary redirector 13 can incorporate vortex ring generators as well as simple ports . in this example the inside edges of the port are as thin as possible , and a tube 13 c is formed around the port , having an inside diameter somewhat larger than the diameter of the port 13 a . as mentioned above these relative sizes will vary depending upon the conditions that prevail , and these design parameters are well known to the engineering art of fluid dynamics and mechanical engineering . a nosecone 14 has been attached to the embodiment illustrated on fig1 . while only one vortex 4 b generator is shown on fig1 , any number can be utilized . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention . this is a simple , modular system in which the compressed gas cartridge 6 is pushed by a piston 10 , in response to an input at 11 a of force 11 b , which moves the piston 10 forward and the compressed gas cartridge 6 , into a vented lance 9 a , well known to the art . this embodiment used a gas cartridge with a seal type valve , but it is apparent that other embodiments could just as easily use another type of valve , well known to the art , including a high volume valve instead . fig1 includes an optional spring 10 c to reset the tank and piston at the completion of the desired release of gas from the tank . in this example the spring is a belleville washer 10 c , but a coil spring , or other spring might just as easily be used . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 also includes a simple valve 8 d , which could be a flapper valve or other type well known to the art to prevent particulate matter from back flowing into the lance 9 a and cartridge 6 or piston 10 . fig1 includes a sonic energy concentrator 5 a , which is suspended from the walls forming the chamber 7 , by one or more supports , around which the gas flow 2 e is free to pass . this embodiment of the invention can accommodate a burst hat 2 as illustrated , or a wafer burst disk at 4 c , or both . fig1 illustrates the pressure release unit including a burst hat 2 and a vortex generator 4 b which can screw into or be attached by other means to a gas projector 1 , such as that illustrated on fig1 . although the embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig1 shows only one retainer ring 4 c , that accommodates a simple burst disk , it should be noted that any number of retainer rings 4 c , could be stacked on top of each other , with appropriate connecting threads , or other means , to produce the desired effects . for example , a simple wafer type burst disk 2 g might be in the bottom retainer rings 4 c , and an additional retainer ring , immediately above it , might retain a vortex ring generator 4 b . fig2 illustrates a side - firing pressure release unit with redirecting vane 13 b that provides redirecting means to the top of the gas projector 1 , illustrated on fig1 . this particular accessory is side firing , with deflector vane 13 b redirecting the flow 2 e at 90 degrees , through port 13 a . it should be noted that these preferred embodiments are meant to be only illustrative of the principal of redirecting the flow , and other embodiments of the invention can project the flow in various directions , and be within the ambit of the invention . fig2 illustrates a further way in which the air projector illustrated on fig1 can be modified to project the sonic report and payload , if any , in any particular direction . in the example illustrated in fig2 , this is 90 degrees , but other embodiments could direct them in any particular direction and be within the ambit of the invention . the embodiment illustrated in fig2 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , and has a similar redirection vane 13 b and sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this example of the invention , the burst disk 2 a has burst 2 c , sending a pulse of gas 2 e past the vortex ring generator 4 b , to produce a vortex 2 f . fig2 , and fig2 illustrate how the gas projectors can be daisy - chained together to ignite at approximately the same time . in these examples of the preferred embodiment a number of gas projectors 1 are placed in a vest that is meant to simulate a suicide vest , for training security personnel . in this example of the preferred embodiment , the gas projectors 1 are secured to a belt 15 , which is cinched around part of a person &# 39 ; s body . the canister 16 , containing a fluid or gas can be motivated by the operator to travel down the tube 12 b and cause the gas to be released from gas cartridge 6 , by such means as described in the forgoing examples . fig2 illustrates gas projectors 1 , that are similar to those illustrated on fig1 , but any gas projectors can be used and come within the ambit of the invention . the tubes 12 b can be connected to the gas projectors at ha and cause all the pistons 10 to move in direction 11 b all at approximately the same time . this will result in the gas being released at approximately the same time , and then a loud report and projection of the payload , in a manner described above . fig2 illustrates how the gas projectors can be individually connected to controlling means similar to that described in fig1 . in this example the controlling means direct the fluid or gas down tubes 12 b individually , so that the gas projectors 1 can be made to ignite in any sequence desired . the controller might be equipped with a wired or wireless remote control to control part or all of the functions of the controller itself . as mentioned above , the invention can take many forms . the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated on fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c is in the form of a mortar . it however has the principal elements of the invention , as will be appreciated in its detailed description . the mortar tube 19 is simply a tube with a closed end at one end , the base , and an open end at the other . the gas projector 1 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , but with the addition of a tail fin 18 , a streamlined cartridge holder 5 and burst hat seal 4 , as well as a payload tube 7 a , nosecone 17 ( the mortar projectile ) and additional gas ports 8 d . fig2 a illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just before the rod 19 a makes contact with piston 10 . at this point the compressed gas cartridge 6 is not discharging any gas . fig2 b illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just as the rod 19 a has made contact with piston 10 and moved it and the abutting gas cartridge 6 in direction 11 b ; causing the lance 9 a to break the seal in said gas cartridge 6 . the released gas 2 e then moves through passage 8 a into the bottom of the payload tube 7 a . simultaneously the released gas 2 e passes around and up the space between the payload tube 7 a and the walls of the barrel or chamber 7 , through ports 8 d , ( the ports 8 d being the only passage available to the top of the nosecone ) and into the space between nose cone or plug 17 and the burst disk 2 a . at this point the nosecone 17 does not move vertically , as the gas pressure is the same at the bottom as the top ; and also the nosecone 17 may be restrained by some of its upper surface coming into contact with the bottom of the burst disk 2 . the “ o ” rings 10 e maintain a sliding , gas tight seal , between the nosecone 17 and the payload tube 7 a . as the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises , the burst disk bulges , as illustrated on fig2 b . at some point the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises to the point that the burst disk 2 a bursts 2 c . fig2 c , illustrates what happens at after this point . after the burst disk fails 2 c , the gas pressure at the top of the nosecone suddenly drops relative to the gas pressure at the bottom of the nosecone . this causes the nosecone to move up the tube thereby covering the ports 8 a and cutting off further movement of gas through these ports 8 a . all the gas that continues to be released 2 e then acts just on the bottom surface of the nosecone 17 , projecting it upward 17 a . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , the nosecone contains a sonic energy concentrator 5 a . this can be in any shape , as mentioned earlier , however , in most applications it will be a concave shape in the top of the nosecone , which creates a secondary resonant chamber , concentrating and promoting the sonic shock front , and also acting as a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward . it is important to note that this embodiment of the invention is consistent with the separation of the gas , that drives the shock front and causes the report , from the gas the later projects the payload . that is , the gas that drives the shock front is unencumbered by payload . in fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c , the payload is the nosecone 17 and the particulate matter 3 and 3 a . note also that when the gas enters port 8 a , the gas fluidizes the particulate matter as the nosecone is elevated on member 7 b , creating a space above the particulate matter 3 and bellow the bottom of the nosecone 17 . fig2 a and 26 b illustrates a further embodiment of the invention that incorporates the principal features that comprise the invention in a form that resembles a foot depression mine . as one can readily appreciate , the embodiment illustrated in fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all resemble the gas projector illustrated in fig1 and fig5 , except that in the former group of embodiments , the piston 10 pushes the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , rather than the other way around . also the piston 10 and gas cartridge 6 are separated by the burst disk 2 a , which is somewhat flexible and allows sufficient movement of both , without bursting . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b include a sonic energy concentrator 5 a that can take many shapes , but most are in the form of a concave surface that creates a secondary resonant chamber that , as mentioned above , enhances the force of the shock front and the consequent volume of the report , while also acting like a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward and away from the device . after the piston 10 is depressed , sliding through a bushing 20 , located in the burst hat seal 4 , as illustrated in fig2 b , the gas is released from the compressed gas cartridge 6 and advances 2 e up the chamber 7 , thence around the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . when the pressure is sufficiently high to burst the burst disk 2 c , it advances through ports 4 a and beyond . it is important to note that in this embodiment , the sonic energy concentrator , provides some further means of separating the first blast of air that breaks the burst disk 2 , 2 c from the payload 3 , in this example , particulate matter 3 , even when the air blast , floats the material somewhat , readying it for transport , as the pressure drops and the air begins to stream 2 e entraining the payload . fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all have “ o ” rings 8 b and restraining means 8 c that prevent any particulate matter or other debris from back flowing into the valve . this novel use of an “ o ” ring that transforms it into a valve by radial expansion and compression is an important feature of the invention , and is found on many implementations of the invention . fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a tripwire type of mine and is identical to the compression mine , illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b , except that the spring 10 c is preloaded by pulling the piston 10 up and temporarily latching it in that position . for example , fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a cotter pin 21 that has been inserted into a hole 21 a , in the piston 10 , while the spring has been put into compression . in fig2 a and 27 b , a tripwire 22 has been connected to the pin . when the tripwire is pulled , the spring 10 c recovers , drawing the piston down into the chamber 7 , and pressing the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , causing the chamber 7 to pressurize , and the burst disk 2 to burst 2 c . the tripwire mine illustrated on 27 a and 27 b both have sonic energy concentrators 5 a and “ o ” rings , which serve the same purposes as they do on the other embodiments of the invention herein . it should be noted that while the reference has been made herein to gas cartridges , it should be understood that the any gas supply would suffice , whether inside the device or partly or completely outside it . it should also be noted that there are many methods of controlling the flow of the gas , will known to the art , including electronic , electrical , pneumatic , hydraulic types , to name just a few example . it should be understood that embodiments that contain any of these methods , which are well known to the art , are within the ambit of this invention . it should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the examples given in this disclosure , but are examples of a larger class of sound and material projection devices , or both . while the burst hat 2 and the burst hat seal have a complementary conic - cylindrical shape , it is to be understood that they may be any shape , provided they present the seal disk 2 a to the air flow or pressure 2 e to effect the purpose of causing the seal disk 2 a to burst 2 c . while the embodiments of the invention are described mostly in the context of using a burst disk to cause a sudden venting of the compressed gas flow , sufficient to cause a loud report , as herein described , it is to be understood that this is only an example of high - speed methods of tuning on the flow of gas , and can utilize other high speed valves , of whatever types . while the preferred embodiment of the invention locates the sonic shock concentrator inside the exit port of the gas projector , the exit port being the last orifice on the device , in the gas stream 2 e , it is to understood that some embodiments of the invention , can locate the sonic shock concentrator 5 a outside the said exit port , in the exiting gas stream 2 e . while the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrates various means of actuating the valve 6 c or breaking the seal 6 a of the compressed gas cartridge , it should be understood that these are merely illustrative of many means well known to the art . for example the gas projector could be made in the form of a gun and the lance 9 a could just as easily be actuated by a finger trigger that would cause the lance 9 a to move forward , releasing the compressed gas , whether in a canister or supplied externally to the device . while many features of the invention have been illustrated in forms that resemble explosive devices and munitions , it is to be understood that the gas projectors can take many forms , such as firecrackers , confetti guns , to name just a few . it should also be noted that certain embodiment can have any combination of features that comprise the embodiments of the invention and still be within the ambit of the invention herein disclosed . while the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand . such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the inventions and appended claims .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Human Necessities'?
0.25
b54415f40a24e90a975daba07ec86abdfe402f9c7fda9aeb5ab75293e8010247
0.084961
0.257813
0.011658
0.030273
0.21875
0.161133
null
the simulation of varied military weapons and munitions is necessary for the proper training of troops . these simulated weapons must be realistic in providing a loud bang or report that would normally accompany their discharge , and also an accompanying smoke and / or dust cloud . at the same time the devices must be safe , not just in use , but when stored and transported by untrained recruits . for safety reasons , the devices described in this disclosure are powered by compressed gas , supplied in tanks or cartridges of various sizes . it is to be understood however , that the invention is not limited to this means of power , and the devices could be adapted to be powered by combustible materials and be within the ambit of the invention . although this invention is directed at producing simulated military devices , some preferred embodiments of the invention can be used for entertainment , in place of pyrotechnics . other preferred embodiments of the invention can also be used to project materials , such as confetti , where an accompanying loud sonic report is required . it should also be appreciated that although the preferred embodiments produce a loud sonic report and the transport of a payload , some preferred embodiments may do only one or the other . the invention and its many embodiments describe a method of separating the sonic report from the transport of payload . in this patent , payload can refer to any material that is transported out of the device , and can include particulate matter such as aggregate , baby powder , talc , or paper such as confetti or a liquid , aerosol , or gas . as described above , the creation of the sonic report is due mainly to propagation of a shock wave caused by the bursting of a burst disk . the use of a burst disk is the most practical and inexpensive method of ensuring a rapid release of compressed gas that is substantially instantaneous , that collides with the ambient air , thus creating a loud bang . to create a loud report , the escaping gas need only travel a short distance , but do so at high velocity . the requirement that it be at the highest possible velocity , means that it must be unencumbered by foreign material , such as parts of the payload . that is , it must not have been slowed down by entraining foreign materials , and accelerating them . the resonant frequency of the gas volume that powers the sonic stroke , immediately after the bursting of the burst disk is of importance , as the energy should be compressed into a relatively short pulse . also of importance is that the sonic report propagates in all directions , and that which returns back into the device , must be redirected back out of the barrel . as mentioned above , the transport of the payload requires a completely different energy regime . transport of the payload requires a long duration , steady flow of gas out of the device , and for this reason , the invention separate these two regimes . the invention can best be described by referring to the drawings that accompany this patent . fig1 incorporates many aspects of the invention . the device illustrated on fig1 can take many shapes and guises , and can for example have rocket fins and nosecones attached . the device illustrated in fig1 is comprised of a chamber or barrel 7 that contains the payload , in this case particular matter 3 , such as baby powder . the bottom portion of the device , referred to as the igniter , and identified as 1 a on fig1 , projects a vented lance 9 a , that either opens a valve 6 b attached to a compressed gas cartridge 6 , or pierces a seal that allows the compressed gas to exit the tank at relatively high volume . fig1 illustrates the igniter that is about to pierce the seal . the igniter in this embodiment of the invention includes a piston 10 that travels up and down , a cylinder 9 in response to a force 11 b that acts on the bottom of the piston 10 . this force 11 b can be supplied by a simple mechanical rod or be in the form of a gas or liquid volume , traveling up and down the tube 11 a , in the base 11 . fig1 illustrates the force 11 b acting in an upward direction that forces the piston 10 and the attached vented lance 9 a . fig1 also illustrates an optional spring 10 c , which compresses and resets the device upon recovery , after the upward force 11 b is relaxed . to prevent the escape of gas , “ o ” rings are employed at certain connections , where gas might otherwise escape and two such “ o ” rings are illustrated 10 a , 10 b . fig1 illustrates a gas relief valve 10 d , which allows the piston to travel up the cylinder , without compressing the gas above . the vented lance 9 a , that is suitable for piercing seal type gas cartridges 6 , is illustrated in more detail on fig4 . the vented lance 9 a has attached a rim 9 c that deflects the escaping gas into the waiting port and passage 8 a on fig1 . this rim 9 c prevents condensate , caused from the cool escaping gas , to enter between the piston 10 and cylinder 9 , which might otherwise seize them . the vented lance 9 a pierces the seal 6 a and allows the compressed gas to escape through the lance vents 9 b and exits as a stream 2 e . the compressed gas is then directed by rim 9 c to ports and passages 8 a in gas distributor 8 . fig1 shows two such ports 8 a , but many preferred embodiments can have any number of such means of transporting the gas . to prevent the fouling of the passages , an “ o ” ring 8 b is placed around the gas distributor in such a manner that when the gas is passing through the passage 8 a with sufficient force , it will radially expand the otherwise sealing “ o ” ring 8 b and unseat it allowing for the passage of gas around it , and into the chamber or barrel 7 . when the gas drops below a certain pressure , the “ o ” ring 8 b will reseal the passage and thereby prevent any particulate matter remaining in the chamber 7 from back flowing into the passage 8 a and beyond . some preferred embodiments include a retaining rim or pegs 8 c or other such restraining means , to ensure that the “ o ” ring 8 b does not roll up or down the gas distributor 8 , with it is in its expanded state . the gas passing out of the passage 8 will rapidly fluidize the material that has been placed in the canister 7 . the fluidizing of this material will greatly assist in later projecting it out of the gas projector 1 . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 includes a gas cartridge 6 that is contained within a holder 5 , but can of course be secured by many other convenient means . fig1 has attached to it or incorporated into it a dish shaped platform sa that is a sound and pressure reflector and that is referred to herein as a sonic energy concentrator . this dish or horn shaped form sa is meant to be illustrative of a large class of forms that focus or reflect sonic energy , including horns , bells to name just a few . other preferred embodiments may however utilize forms that are flat or convex ; to disperse the sound and make it more omni directional as it exits the chamber . the other purpose of the sonic energy concentrator sa is to establish a secondary resonant cavity between the said sonic energy concentrator and the burst disk 2 a it faces . since the gas pulse that gives rise to the shock front need only be short in length and duration , but high in velocity , it is advantageous to have a relatively short resonant cavity . it is to be understood that fig1 is only illustrative of one aspect of the invention , and that the size , shape and location , relative to the bottom surface of the burst disk 2 a will vary depending upon many factors , such as the size of the primary resonant cavity , the distance beneath the sonic energy concentrator sa , the pressures at which the system operates and the gas that is used as an energy source , to name a few . at the top of the cavity is located a burst hat 2 , that includes a burst disk 2 a , which is snapped into place over a small ledge sd , as illustrated on fig1 , or by other convenient means well known to the art . the burst hat 2 is shaped to seal with burst hat seal 4 , when the pressure in cavity 7 increases above the pressure outside the cavity . while fig1 illustrates a hat shaped burst disk , this is merely illustrative of a class of burst disks that can for example be simple wafer like disks sealed at their perimeters , by means well known to the art . the purpose of the burst disk is to contain the increasing pressure within the chamber as the compressed gas cartridge empties ; and then at some predetermined pressure , to fail suddenly , allowing the gas to escape out through the orifice 4 a . this burst disk serves as an inexpensive high speed valve , which of course some preferred embodiments might substitute . as described above , when the burst disk 2 a or substituted high speed valve opens , the high pressure gas accelerates quickly in the preferred embodiment , as there is no payload to impede it . this acceleration is aided by the tapered burst hat 2 that forms a venturi and the sonic energy concentrator with relatively short pulse resonance . a shock front is created when this high velocity gas meats the relatively slow moving ambient air , immediately adjacent to the boundary of the disk , when it breaks . the result is a shock front , shock wave and resulting sonic report . fig5 illustrates the system at the point that the piston 10 has moved up the cylinder 9 in response to upward force 11 b , causing the gas to escape from the breached seal 6 a , and the gas to pass into the chamber 7 , as above described . fig5 illustrates the burst seal having burst 2 c , the payload material 3 a starting to exit the chamber 7 . also illustrated between the sonic energy concentrator 5 a and the just burst disk , is the secondary resonant cavity , that quickly upon the bursting of the burst disk 2 a , assumes the role of a sound bell or horn , directing the sound of the shock wave produced , outward , away from the chamber 7 and accelerating the shock front formation . just after the burst disk 2 a fails 2 c and generally following the sonic report , the payload , in this example , particulate matter , having been already fluidized , is entrained by the large volume of slower moving , lower pressure gas , that then exits the chamber 7 , through the orifice 4 a . while the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 and fig5 illustrate a conic - cylindrical hat 2 that incorporates the burst disk 2 a , the hat can also contain part or the entire payload . while the preferred embodiment of the invention , has the escaping gas acting on the burst disk first , to create a loud report , as described above ; there may be circumstances where one may wish to project the material with higher or in a more clustered form , in which case it may be advantageous to fill the burst hat 2 with such material and contain it with a cover to form a burst hat container 2 j , such as a peal top 2 b , well known to the art . in such preferred embodiments , some or all of the other features of the invention may be utilized and therefore still be within the ambit of the invention . one embodiment of the invention is to convert the burst hat 2 into a burst hat container 2 j for the material 3 to be projected by the gas projector 1 by adding a peal top 2 b or other top that can be removed or pierced . in most cases the burst hat container 2 j is filled with the precise amount that will give a particular effect , for a particular device . these burst containers 2 j , can then be provided already packed in handy portions , and in most cases the user will simply empty the ideal portion into the chamber 7 , and then place the empty burst hat container 2 in the burst hat seal , as illustrated in fig1 . fig8 illustrates the packaging of the material in a way consistent with one of the preferred embodiments that is to ensure that the initial gas pulse that bursts the disk is unimpeded with payload . the burst hat container 2 j illustrated in fig8 has a partly or wholly vacant channel 2 h running from the peal top 2 b to the burst disk 2 a . the channel can be created by inserting a tube preferably made of material that will maintain its integrity only briefly to allow the initial pulse of gas to break the burst disk 2 a and create the shock front . the tube or member of other suitable shape can for example be made of paper or friable material such as ceramic or may simply be formed by pressing or adding a binder to the particular matter that forms the payload . for example , if the payload is talc , a tube might be pressed into the talk , after it is poured into the burst hat container 2 j , and then the surface of the tube so formed could be sprayed or imparted into it by other well know means , a binder , that would stabilize the tube , and yet , after providing a channel for the initial pulse of gas , collapse or partly collapse , so the material might better be transported out of the orifice in a uniform spray . the hole adjacent to the peal top 2 i shown in fig8 can extend through the top or can be broken open by simply pushing the inverted burst hat onto the shock tube 5 b . some embodiments of the invention include a shock tube 5 b as shown on fig6 , most of which include some means , such as a port 5 c for the gas to enter the lumen of the shock tube 5 b and gain access to the bottom of the shock disk 2 a . in the example illustrated on fig6 , this point of entry is a hole 5 c just above the sonic shock concentrator 5 a . other embodiments of the invention have no shock tube and rely instead on the channel 2 h as shown of fig8 , and simply have a whole 2 i precut or that can be easily removed prior to insertion . other embodiments have points of weakness around the hole that allow the cover of the hole 2 i to fail when the pressure begins to rise in the chamber . other embodiments utilize other methods well known to the art of packaging . as mentioned above , some embodiments of the invention rely on a high volume valve to control the emptying of the compressed gas cartridge 6 , rather than a pierce disk , as illustrated on fig1 . fig9 illustrates the system with such a valve 6 b , in this example connected directly to the said compressed gas cartridge 6 . fig9 includes an extension 6 c which is acted upon by the lance 9 a to open the flow of gas to the gas distributor , and in this example channel 8 a . the high volume valves are generally used for larger gas cartridges and the pierce disks for the smaller ones . fig9 also illustrates another embodiment of one aspect of the invention , being the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this embodiment , the device has a base which fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . these ease of installation means that various shaped sonic energy concentrators 5 a can be used to address particular performance requirements , such as the shape and intensity of the sound field generated by the device . for example , for some applications , a very narrowly focused , high intensity field will be required , necessitating a sonic energy concentrator with a deeper dish at the top of the unit . other applications would require a flatter or even convex surface to vary the shape and intensity of the sonic field . the design specifications of all these embodiments of the invention will depend upon the particular circumstances of the device dimensions , gas pressures used , type of energy inputs , to name just a few . fig1 is view of the principal components of a typical gas projection system . they are : the igniter unit , 1 a ; the gas delivery system , including the gas distributor , 1 b ; and the pressure release unit , 1 c . fig1 illustrates the typical igniter unit 1 a . in this example , illustrated in fig1 , the piston 10 movement is controlled by a fluid or gas entering the channel 11 a , via a tube or conduit 12 b . the controller 12 controls the delivery of this controlling gas or fluid and its design is well known to the art of fluid and gas controllers . in some embodiments , this controller can in turn be controlled by a more remote wireless , or wired device 12 a . although this example of the embodiment illustrated on fig1 utilizes a gas or fluid media to push up the piston 10 , other embodiments would utilize other means well known to the art to control the motion of the lance 9 a , and these might be wholly electric or such other means well known to the art . fig1 is meant to illustrate one embodiment of the invention that includes a redirecting means for the sonic energy and subsequently the matter that is ejected out of the chamber 7 of the gas projector 1 . in this example an auxiliary cap 13 is screwed onto the top of the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with treaded top . the flow of compressed gas 2 e passes the burst disk 2 c and then is redirected at 90 degrees , in approximately a 180 degree field by an approximately inverted conic section 13 b , and thence through ports of various sizes and locations , 13 a . fig1 also illustrates the use of a sonic energy concentrator 5 a of the type illustrated in fig9 , that fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . this example illustrates the many shapes the basic gas projector 1 can assume . in this case the base 11 is shaped like the head of an artillery shell . this preferred embodiment might be used to simulate a road - side bomb made from an artillery shell . this unit might be used to train soldiers on how to locate , avoid and disarm such devices . in this example , the embodiment illustrated includes a remote control device 12 and 12 a for igniting the unit , as earlier described . it is important to note that this example of a preferred embodiment of the invention uses the same burst hat 2 as in fig1 , and is retained by the same snap in ledge 5 d . fig1 illustrates an auxiliary cap 13 that has a more focused redirector . in this case a redirecting member 13 b turns the gas flow 2 e , at approximately right angles and redirects the flow out a port 13 a . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention that allows for redirection of the gas flow 2 e and various means of attaching the burst disk . in this embodiment of the invention the standard gas projector 1 is fitted with a high volume valve 6 c , with remote controller 12 and 12 a , with a base 11 shaped like an artillery shell . the burst hat seal 4 can accommodate a burst hat 2 , being retained by ledge 5 d ; or the wafer burst disk 2 g can alternatively clamped in by retainer ring 4 c . fig1 also illustrates a sonic energy concentrator that is meant to work most efficiently in the mode where the wafer like burst disk 2 g is located at the retention ring 4 c . for this preferred embodiment the sonic energy concentrator 5 a creates a very efficient secondary resonant cavity , and also acts as a broadcast horn to project the sound in the desired direction . fig1 also includes a redirecting member 13 b , which is in this case blended into the sonic energy concentrator . as can be readily appreciated , from the forgoing examples , the sonic energy concentrator can take many forms , but still be within the ambit of the invention . if the burst hat 2 is located in the burst hat seal 4 ; burst disk 4 c , is not normally used . however , for some applications a staged burst sequence might for certain applications be desired , especially where very high energy sonic booms are required . for these applications the secondary resonant chamber might be pumped by utilizing an intermittent pulse created by first pulsing the valve 6 c , and then using a high speed valve in place of the burst disk 2 a or alternatively , the burst disk 2 a might be of the split type , well known to the art , and disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 831 , 475 by richard i . daniel , that would permit intermittent opening and closing of the seal as the pressure in vessel 7 increased and then was relived by the temporary opening of the split seal , and as the pressure dropped with its release , the split seal would reseal , and the pressure would rebuild for another cycle . if a high speed electronically controlled valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 at the burst hat seal 4 and a electronically controlled high speed valve is used at 6 c , and perhaps a high speed valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 g , and the opening and closing of the valves are coordinated , to maximize resonance in the secondary resonant chamber , pumped by harmonic resonance in the primary resonant chamber 7 , then very intense sonic pulses can be created . the pulse finally exiting the orifice at 4 c , can also be transformed into a vortex , by attaching a vortex generator ring 4 b , described below . fig1 illustrates how a vortex ring might be attached or incorporated into the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with standard orifice 4 a , which has added a thin ring 4 b that is designed to slow the periphery of the gas flow 2 e as it exits the unit . as it does so , the centre of the gas flow speeds up relative to the flow on the periphery . if the flow of the gas 2 e , takes the form of short pulses , vortexes will be formed at each pulse . a vortex is very stable and can entrain particulate matter and carry it for distances far greater than a simple stream of gas , which quickly diffuses . this feature allows the invention to produce much more realistic mushroom clouds that occur with conventional explosions . the vortex also will impart a percussive impact which can be felt by a person its path . it is a feature of this invention that makes the device much more realistic in safely simulating the sounds , smoke and with this feature the percussive impact of an exploding device . the actual dimensions of the rings , to create such an effect for the many conditions that will arise for the various embodiments of the invention are well known to the art of vortex generation . suffice it to say , that these various implementations are all within the ambit of this invention . in fig1 a simple arrangement might be to have a burst hat 2 at burst hat seal 4 , and a vortex ring generator located at ring retainer 4 c . this arrangement would deliver a pulse to the vortex ring generator , with sonic concentration and horn amplification by the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . if a split type of burse disk is substituted for the burst seal 2 a in the burst hat 2 , and is located in burst hat seal 4 , the controller can direct the valve 6 c to release an intermittent pulse , which results in a series of reports . if a vortex generator is added at 4 c , these pulses can be converted in vortexes . fig1 illustrates how an auxiliary redirector 13 can incorporate vortex ring generators as well as simple ports . in this example the inside edges of the port are as thin as possible , and a tube 13 c is formed around the port , having an inside diameter somewhat larger than the diameter of the port 13 a . as mentioned above these relative sizes will vary depending upon the conditions that prevail , and these design parameters are well known to the engineering art of fluid dynamics and mechanical engineering . a nosecone 14 has been attached to the embodiment illustrated on fig1 . while only one vortex 4 b generator is shown on fig1 , any number can be utilized . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention . this is a simple , modular system in which the compressed gas cartridge 6 is pushed by a piston 10 , in response to an input at 11 a of force 11 b , which moves the piston 10 forward and the compressed gas cartridge 6 , into a vented lance 9 a , well known to the art . this embodiment used a gas cartridge with a seal type valve , but it is apparent that other embodiments could just as easily use another type of valve , well known to the art , including a high volume valve instead . fig1 includes an optional spring 10 c to reset the tank and piston at the completion of the desired release of gas from the tank . in this example the spring is a belleville washer 10 c , but a coil spring , or other spring might just as easily be used . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 also includes a simple valve 8 d , which could be a flapper valve or other type well known to the art to prevent particulate matter from back flowing into the lance 9 a and cartridge 6 or piston 10 . fig1 includes a sonic energy concentrator 5 a , which is suspended from the walls forming the chamber 7 , by one or more supports , around which the gas flow 2 e is free to pass . this embodiment of the invention can accommodate a burst hat 2 as illustrated , or a wafer burst disk at 4 c , or both . fig1 illustrates the pressure release unit including a burst hat 2 and a vortex generator 4 b which can screw into or be attached by other means to a gas projector 1 , such as that illustrated on fig1 . although the embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig1 shows only one retainer ring 4 c , that accommodates a simple burst disk , it should be noted that any number of retainer rings 4 c , could be stacked on top of each other , with appropriate connecting threads , or other means , to produce the desired effects . for example , a simple wafer type burst disk 2 g might be in the bottom retainer rings 4 c , and an additional retainer ring , immediately above it , might retain a vortex ring generator 4 b . fig2 illustrates a side - firing pressure release unit with redirecting vane 13 b that provides redirecting means to the top of the gas projector 1 , illustrated on fig1 . this particular accessory is side firing , with deflector vane 13 b redirecting the flow 2 e at 90 degrees , through port 13 a . it should be noted that these preferred embodiments are meant to be only illustrative of the principal of redirecting the flow , and other embodiments of the invention can project the flow in various directions , and be within the ambit of the invention . fig2 illustrates a further way in which the air projector illustrated on fig1 can be modified to project the sonic report and payload , if any , in any particular direction . in the example illustrated in fig2 , this is 90 degrees , but other embodiments could direct them in any particular direction and be within the ambit of the invention . the embodiment illustrated in fig2 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , and has a similar redirection vane 13 b and sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this example of the invention , the burst disk 2 a has burst 2 c , sending a pulse of gas 2 e past the vortex ring generator 4 b , to produce a vortex 2 f . fig2 , and fig2 illustrate how the gas projectors can be daisy - chained together to ignite at approximately the same time . in these examples of the preferred embodiment a number of gas projectors 1 are placed in a vest that is meant to simulate a suicide vest , for training security personnel . in this example of the preferred embodiment , the gas projectors 1 are secured to a belt 15 , which is cinched around part of a person &# 39 ; s body . the canister 16 , containing a fluid or gas can be motivated by the operator to travel down the tube 12 b and cause the gas to be released from gas cartridge 6 , by such means as described in the forgoing examples . fig2 illustrates gas projectors 1 , that are similar to those illustrated on fig1 , but any gas projectors can be used and come within the ambit of the invention . the tubes 12 b can be connected to the gas projectors at ha and cause all the pistons 10 to move in direction 11 b all at approximately the same time . this will result in the gas being released at approximately the same time , and then a loud report and projection of the payload , in a manner described above . fig2 illustrates how the gas projectors can be individually connected to controlling means similar to that described in fig1 . in this example the controlling means direct the fluid or gas down tubes 12 b individually , so that the gas projectors 1 can be made to ignite in any sequence desired . the controller might be equipped with a wired or wireless remote control to control part or all of the functions of the controller itself . as mentioned above , the invention can take many forms . the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated on fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c is in the form of a mortar . it however has the principal elements of the invention , as will be appreciated in its detailed description . the mortar tube 19 is simply a tube with a closed end at one end , the base , and an open end at the other . the gas projector 1 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , but with the addition of a tail fin 18 , a streamlined cartridge holder 5 and burst hat seal 4 , as well as a payload tube 7 a , nosecone 17 ( the mortar projectile ) and additional gas ports 8 d . fig2 a illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just before the rod 19 a makes contact with piston 10 . at this point the compressed gas cartridge 6 is not discharging any gas . fig2 b illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just as the rod 19 a has made contact with piston 10 and moved it and the abutting gas cartridge 6 in direction 11 b ; causing the lance 9 a to break the seal in said gas cartridge 6 . the released gas 2 e then moves through passage 8 a into the bottom of the payload tube 7 a . simultaneously the released gas 2 e passes around and up the space between the payload tube 7 a and the walls of the barrel or chamber 7 , through ports 8 d , ( the ports 8 d being the only passage available to the top of the nosecone ) and into the space between nose cone or plug 17 and the burst disk 2 a . at this point the nosecone 17 does not move vertically , as the gas pressure is the same at the bottom as the top ; and also the nosecone 17 may be restrained by some of its upper surface coming into contact with the bottom of the burst disk 2 . the “ o ” rings 10 e maintain a sliding , gas tight seal , between the nosecone 17 and the payload tube 7 a . as the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises , the burst disk bulges , as illustrated on fig2 b . at some point the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises to the point that the burst disk 2 a bursts 2 c . fig2 c , illustrates what happens at after this point . after the burst disk fails 2 c , the gas pressure at the top of the nosecone suddenly drops relative to the gas pressure at the bottom of the nosecone . this causes the nosecone to move up the tube thereby covering the ports 8 a and cutting off further movement of gas through these ports 8 a . all the gas that continues to be released 2 e then acts just on the bottom surface of the nosecone 17 , projecting it upward 17 a . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , the nosecone contains a sonic energy concentrator 5 a . this can be in any shape , as mentioned earlier , however , in most applications it will be a concave shape in the top of the nosecone , which creates a secondary resonant chamber , concentrating and promoting the sonic shock front , and also acting as a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward . it is important to note that this embodiment of the invention is consistent with the separation of the gas , that drives the shock front and causes the report , from the gas the later projects the payload . that is , the gas that drives the shock front is unencumbered by payload . in fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c , the payload is the nosecone 17 and the particulate matter 3 and 3 a . note also that when the gas enters port 8 a , the gas fluidizes the particulate matter as the nosecone is elevated on member 7 b , creating a space above the particulate matter 3 and bellow the bottom of the nosecone 17 . fig2 a and 26 b illustrates a further embodiment of the invention that incorporates the principal features that comprise the invention in a form that resembles a foot depression mine . as one can readily appreciate , the embodiment illustrated in fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all resemble the gas projector illustrated in fig1 and fig5 , except that in the former group of embodiments , the piston 10 pushes the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , rather than the other way around . also the piston 10 and gas cartridge 6 are separated by the burst disk 2 a , which is somewhat flexible and allows sufficient movement of both , without bursting . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b include a sonic energy concentrator 5 a that can take many shapes , but most are in the form of a concave surface that creates a secondary resonant chamber that , as mentioned above , enhances the force of the shock front and the consequent volume of the report , while also acting like a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward and away from the device . after the piston 10 is depressed , sliding through a bushing 20 , located in the burst hat seal 4 , as illustrated in fig2 b , the gas is released from the compressed gas cartridge 6 and advances 2 e up the chamber 7 , thence around the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . when the pressure is sufficiently high to burst the burst disk 2 c , it advances through ports 4 a and beyond . it is important to note that in this embodiment , the sonic energy concentrator , provides some further means of separating the first blast of air that breaks the burst disk 2 , 2 c from the payload 3 , in this example , particulate matter 3 , even when the air blast , floats the material somewhat , readying it for transport , as the pressure drops and the air begins to stream 2 e entraining the payload . fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all have “ o ” rings 8 b and restraining means 8 c that prevent any particulate matter or other debris from back flowing into the valve . this novel use of an “ o ” ring that transforms it into a valve by radial expansion and compression is an important feature of the invention , and is found on many implementations of the invention . fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a tripwire type of mine and is identical to the compression mine , illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b , except that the spring 10 c is preloaded by pulling the piston 10 up and temporarily latching it in that position . for example , fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a cotter pin 21 that has been inserted into a hole 21 a , in the piston 10 , while the spring has been put into compression . in fig2 a and 27 b , a tripwire 22 has been connected to the pin . when the tripwire is pulled , the spring 10 c recovers , drawing the piston down into the chamber 7 , and pressing the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , causing the chamber 7 to pressurize , and the burst disk 2 to burst 2 c . the tripwire mine illustrated on 27 a and 27 b both have sonic energy concentrators 5 a and “ o ” rings , which serve the same purposes as they do on the other embodiments of the invention herein . it should be noted that while the reference has been made herein to gas cartridges , it should be understood that the any gas supply would suffice , whether inside the device or partly or completely outside it . it should also be noted that there are many methods of controlling the flow of the gas , will known to the art , including electronic , electrical , pneumatic , hydraulic types , to name just a few example . it should be understood that embodiments that contain any of these methods , which are well known to the art , are within the ambit of this invention . it should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the examples given in this disclosure , but are examples of a larger class of sound and material projection devices , or both . while the burst hat 2 and the burst hat seal have a complementary conic - cylindrical shape , it is to be understood that they may be any shape , provided they present the seal disk 2 a to the air flow or pressure 2 e to effect the purpose of causing the seal disk 2 a to burst 2 c . while the embodiments of the invention are described mostly in the context of using a burst disk to cause a sudden venting of the compressed gas flow , sufficient to cause a loud report , as herein described , it is to be understood that this is only an example of high - speed methods of tuning on the flow of gas , and can utilize other high speed valves , of whatever types . while the preferred embodiment of the invention locates the sonic shock concentrator inside the exit port of the gas projector , the exit port being the last orifice on the device , in the gas stream 2 e , it is to understood that some embodiments of the invention , can locate the sonic shock concentrator 5 a outside the said exit port , in the exiting gas stream 2 e . while the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrates various means of actuating the valve 6 c or breaking the seal 6 a of the compressed gas cartridge , it should be understood that these are merely illustrative of many means well known to the art . for example the gas projector could be made in the form of a gun and the lance 9 a could just as easily be actuated by a finger trigger that would cause the lance 9 a to move forward , releasing the compressed gas , whether in a canister or supplied externally to the device . while many features of the invention have been illustrated in forms that resemble explosive devices and munitions , it is to be understood that the gas projectors can take many forms , such as firecrackers , confetti guns , to name just a few . it should also be noted that certain embodiment can have any combination of features that comprise the embodiments of the invention and still be within the ambit of the invention herein disclosed . while the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand . such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the inventions and appended claims .
Does the content of this patent fall under the category of 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Is 'Performing Operations; Transporting' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
b54415f40a24e90a975daba07ec86abdfe402f9c7fda9aeb5ab75293e8010247
0.08252
0.251953
0.01001
0.233398
0.163086
0.129883
null
the simulation of varied military weapons and munitions is necessary for the proper training of troops . these simulated weapons must be realistic in providing a loud bang or report that would normally accompany their discharge , and also an accompanying smoke and / or dust cloud . at the same time the devices must be safe , not just in use , but when stored and transported by untrained recruits . for safety reasons , the devices described in this disclosure are powered by compressed gas , supplied in tanks or cartridges of various sizes . it is to be understood however , that the invention is not limited to this means of power , and the devices could be adapted to be powered by combustible materials and be within the ambit of the invention . although this invention is directed at producing simulated military devices , some preferred embodiments of the invention can be used for entertainment , in place of pyrotechnics . other preferred embodiments of the invention can also be used to project materials , such as confetti , where an accompanying loud sonic report is required . it should also be appreciated that although the preferred embodiments produce a loud sonic report and the transport of a payload , some preferred embodiments may do only one or the other . the invention and its many embodiments describe a method of separating the sonic report from the transport of payload . in this patent , payload can refer to any material that is transported out of the device , and can include particulate matter such as aggregate , baby powder , talc , or paper such as confetti or a liquid , aerosol , or gas . as described above , the creation of the sonic report is due mainly to propagation of a shock wave caused by the bursting of a burst disk . the use of a burst disk is the most practical and inexpensive method of ensuring a rapid release of compressed gas that is substantially instantaneous , that collides with the ambient air , thus creating a loud bang . to create a loud report , the escaping gas need only travel a short distance , but do so at high velocity . the requirement that it be at the highest possible velocity , means that it must be unencumbered by foreign material , such as parts of the payload . that is , it must not have been slowed down by entraining foreign materials , and accelerating them . the resonant frequency of the gas volume that powers the sonic stroke , immediately after the bursting of the burst disk is of importance , as the energy should be compressed into a relatively short pulse . also of importance is that the sonic report propagates in all directions , and that which returns back into the device , must be redirected back out of the barrel . as mentioned above , the transport of the payload requires a completely different energy regime . transport of the payload requires a long duration , steady flow of gas out of the device , and for this reason , the invention separate these two regimes . the invention can best be described by referring to the drawings that accompany this patent . fig1 incorporates many aspects of the invention . the device illustrated on fig1 can take many shapes and guises , and can for example have rocket fins and nosecones attached . the device illustrated in fig1 is comprised of a chamber or barrel 7 that contains the payload , in this case particular matter 3 , such as baby powder . the bottom portion of the device , referred to as the igniter , and identified as 1 a on fig1 , projects a vented lance 9 a , that either opens a valve 6 b attached to a compressed gas cartridge 6 , or pierces a seal that allows the compressed gas to exit the tank at relatively high volume . fig1 illustrates the igniter that is about to pierce the seal . the igniter in this embodiment of the invention includes a piston 10 that travels up and down , a cylinder 9 in response to a force 11 b that acts on the bottom of the piston 10 . this force 11 b can be supplied by a simple mechanical rod or be in the form of a gas or liquid volume , traveling up and down the tube 11 a , in the base 11 . fig1 illustrates the force 11 b acting in an upward direction that forces the piston 10 and the attached vented lance 9 a . fig1 also illustrates an optional spring 10 c , which compresses and resets the device upon recovery , after the upward force 11 b is relaxed . to prevent the escape of gas , “ o ” rings are employed at certain connections , where gas might otherwise escape and two such “ o ” rings are illustrated 10 a , 10 b . fig1 illustrates a gas relief valve 10 d , which allows the piston to travel up the cylinder , without compressing the gas above . the vented lance 9 a , that is suitable for piercing seal type gas cartridges 6 , is illustrated in more detail on fig4 . the vented lance 9 a has attached a rim 9 c that deflects the escaping gas into the waiting port and passage 8 a on fig1 . this rim 9 c prevents condensate , caused from the cool escaping gas , to enter between the piston 10 and cylinder 9 , which might otherwise seize them . the vented lance 9 a pierces the seal 6 a and allows the compressed gas to escape through the lance vents 9 b and exits as a stream 2 e . the compressed gas is then directed by rim 9 c to ports and passages 8 a in gas distributor 8 . fig1 shows two such ports 8 a , but many preferred embodiments can have any number of such means of transporting the gas . to prevent the fouling of the passages , an “ o ” ring 8 b is placed around the gas distributor in such a manner that when the gas is passing through the passage 8 a with sufficient force , it will radially expand the otherwise sealing “ o ” ring 8 b and unseat it allowing for the passage of gas around it , and into the chamber or barrel 7 . when the gas drops below a certain pressure , the “ o ” ring 8 b will reseal the passage and thereby prevent any particulate matter remaining in the chamber 7 from back flowing into the passage 8 a and beyond . some preferred embodiments include a retaining rim or pegs 8 c or other such restraining means , to ensure that the “ o ” ring 8 b does not roll up or down the gas distributor 8 , with it is in its expanded state . the gas passing out of the passage 8 will rapidly fluidize the material that has been placed in the canister 7 . the fluidizing of this material will greatly assist in later projecting it out of the gas projector 1 . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 includes a gas cartridge 6 that is contained within a holder 5 , but can of course be secured by many other convenient means . fig1 has attached to it or incorporated into it a dish shaped platform sa that is a sound and pressure reflector and that is referred to herein as a sonic energy concentrator . this dish or horn shaped form sa is meant to be illustrative of a large class of forms that focus or reflect sonic energy , including horns , bells to name just a few . other preferred embodiments may however utilize forms that are flat or convex ; to disperse the sound and make it more omni directional as it exits the chamber . the other purpose of the sonic energy concentrator sa is to establish a secondary resonant cavity between the said sonic energy concentrator and the burst disk 2 a it faces . since the gas pulse that gives rise to the shock front need only be short in length and duration , but high in velocity , it is advantageous to have a relatively short resonant cavity . it is to be understood that fig1 is only illustrative of one aspect of the invention , and that the size , shape and location , relative to the bottom surface of the burst disk 2 a will vary depending upon many factors , such as the size of the primary resonant cavity , the distance beneath the sonic energy concentrator sa , the pressures at which the system operates and the gas that is used as an energy source , to name a few . at the top of the cavity is located a burst hat 2 , that includes a burst disk 2 a , which is snapped into place over a small ledge sd , as illustrated on fig1 , or by other convenient means well known to the art . the burst hat 2 is shaped to seal with burst hat seal 4 , when the pressure in cavity 7 increases above the pressure outside the cavity . while fig1 illustrates a hat shaped burst disk , this is merely illustrative of a class of burst disks that can for example be simple wafer like disks sealed at their perimeters , by means well known to the art . the purpose of the burst disk is to contain the increasing pressure within the chamber as the compressed gas cartridge empties ; and then at some predetermined pressure , to fail suddenly , allowing the gas to escape out through the orifice 4 a . this burst disk serves as an inexpensive high speed valve , which of course some preferred embodiments might substitute . as described above , when the burst disk 2 a or substituted high speed valve opens , the high pressure gas accelerates quickly in the preferred embodiment , as there is no payload to impede it . this acceleration is aided by the tapered burst hat 2 that forms a venturi and the sonic energy concentrator with relatively short pulse resonance . a shock front is created when this high velocity gas meats the relatively slow moving ambient air , immediately adjacent to the boundary of the disk , when it breaks . the result is a shock front , shock wave and resulting sonic report . fig5 illustrates the system at the point that the piston 10 has moved up the cylinder 9 in response to upward force 11 b , causing the gas to escape from the breached seal 6 a , and the gas to pass into the chamber 7 , as above described . fig5 illustrates the burst seal having burst 2 c , the payload material 3 a starting to exit the chamber 7 . also illustrated between the sonic energy concentrator 5 a and the just burst disk , is the secondary resonant cavity , that quickly upon the bursting of the burst disk 2 a , assumes the role of a sound bell or horn , directing the sound of the shock wave produced , outward , away from the chamber 7 and accelerating the shock front formation . just after the burst disk 2 a fails 2 c and generally following the sonic report , the payload , in this example , particulate matter , having been already fluidized , is entrained by the large volume of slower moving , lower pressure gas , that then exits the chamber 7 , through the orifice 4 a . while the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 and fig5 illustrate a conic - cylindrical hat 2 that incorporates the burst disk 2 a , the hat can also contain part or the entire payload . while the preferred embodiment of the invention , has the escaping gas acting on the burst disk first , to create a loud report , as described above ; there may be circumstances where one may wish to project the material with higher or in a more clustered form , in which case it may be advantageous to fill the burst hat 2 with such material and contain it with a cover to form a burst hat container 2 j , such as a peal top 2 b , well known to the art . in such preferred embodiments , some or all of the other features of the invention may be utilized and therefore still be within the ambit of the invention . one embodiment of the invention is to convert the burst hat 2 into a burst hat container 2 j for the material 3 to be projected by the gas projector 1 by adding a peal top 2 b or other top that can be removed or pierced . in most cases the burst hat container 2 j is filled with the precise amount that will give a particular effect , for a particular device . these burst containers 2 j , can then be provided already packed in handy portions , and in most cases the user will simply empty the ideal portion into the chamber 7 , and then place the empty burst hat container 2 in the burst hat seal , as illustrated in fig1 . fig8 illustrates the packaging of the material in a way consistent with one of the preferred embodiments that is to ensure that the initial gas pulse that bursts the disk is unimpeded with payload . the burst hat container 2 j illustrated in fig8 has a partly or wholly vacant channel 2 h running from the peal top 2 b to the burst disk 2 a . the channel can be created by inserting a tube preferably made of material that will maintain its integrity only briefly to allow the initial pulse of gas to break the burst disk 2 a and create the shock front . the tube or member of other suitable shape can for example be made of paper or friable material such as ceramic or may simply be formed by pressing or adding a binder to the particular matter that forms the payload . for example , if the payload is talc , a tube might be pressed into the talk , after it is poured into the burst hat container 2 j , and then the surface of the tube so formed could be sprayed or imparted into it by other well know means , a binder , that would stabilize the tube , and yet , after providing a channel for the initial pulse of gas , collapse or partly collapse , so the material might better be transported out of the orifice in a uniform spray . the hole adjacent to the peal top 2 i shown in fig8 can extend through the top or can be broken open by simply pushing the inverted burst hat onto the shock tube 5 b . some embodiments of the invention include a shock tube 5 b as shown on fig6 , most of which include some means , such as a port 5 c for the gas to enter the lumen of the shock tube 5 b and gain access to the bottom of the shock disk 2 a . in the example illustrated on fig6 , this point of entry is a hole 5 c just above the sonic shock concentrator 5 a . other embodiments of the invention have no shock tube and rely instead on the channel 2 h as shown of fig8 , and simply have a whole 2 i precut or that can be easily removed prior to insertion . other embodiments have points of weakness around the hole that allow the cover of the hole 2 i to fail when the pressure begins to rise in the chamber . other embodiments utilize other methods well known to the art of packaging . as mentioned above , some embodiments of the invention rely on a high volume valve to control the emptying of the compressed gas cartridge 6 , rather than a pierce disk , as illustrated on fig1 . fig9 illustrates the system with such a valve 6 b , in this example connected directly to the said compressed gas cartridge 6 . fig9 includes an extension 6 c which is acted upon by the lance 9 a to open the flow of gas to the gas distributor , and in this example channel 8 a . the high volume valves are generally used for larger gas cartridges and the pierce disks for the smaller ones . fig9 also illustrates another embodiment of one aspect of the invention , being the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this embodiment , the device has a base which fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . these ease of installation means that various shaped sonic energy concentrators 5 a can be used to address particular performance requirements , such as the shape and intensity of the sound field generated by the device . for example , for some applications , a very narrowly focused , high intensity field will be required , necessitating a sonic energy concentrator with a deeper dish at the top of the unit . other applications would require a flatter or even convex surface to vary the shape and intensity of the sonic field . the design specifications of all these embodiments of the invention will depend upon the particular circumstances of the device dimensions , gas pressures used , type of energy inputs , to name just a few . fig1 is view of the principal components of a typical gas projection system . they are : the igniter unit , 1 a ; the gas delivery system , including the gas distributor , 1 b ; and the pressure release unit , 1 c . fig1 illustrates the typical igniter unit 1 a . in this example , illustrated in fig1 , the piston 10 movement is controlled by a fluid or gas entering the channel 11 a , via a tube or conduit 12 b . the controller 12 controls the delivery of this controlling gas or fluid and its design is well known to the art of fluid and gas controllers . in some embodiments , this controller can in turn be controlled by a more remote wireless , or wired device 12 a . although this example of the embodiment illustrated on fig1 utilizes a gas or fluid media to push up the piston 10 , other embodiments would utilize other means well known to the art to control the motion of the lance 9 a , and these might be wholly electric or such other means well known to the art . fig1 is meant to illustrate one embodiment of the invention that includes a redirecting means for the sonic energy and subsequently the matter that is ejected out of the chamber 7 of the gas projector 1 . in this example an auxiliary cap 13 is screwed onto the top of the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with treaded top . the flow of compressed gas 2 e passes the burst disk 2 c and then is redirected at 90 degrees , in approximately a 180 degree field by an approximately inverted conic section 13 b , and thence through ports of various sizes and locations , 13 a . fig1 also illustrates the use of a sonic energy concentrator 5 a of the type illustrated in fig9 , that fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . this example illustrates the many shapes the basic gas projector 1 can assume . in this case the base 11 is shaped like the head of an artillery shell . this preferred embodiment might be used to simulate a road - side bomb made from an artillery shell . this unit might be used to train soldiers on how to locate , avoid and disarm such devices . in this example , the embodiment illustrated includes a remote control device 12 and 12 a for igniting the unit , as earlier described . it is important to note that this example of a preferred embodiment of the invention uses the same burst hat 2 as in fig1 , and is retained by the same snap in ledge 5 d . fig1 illustrates an auxiliary cap 13 that has a more focused redirector . in this case a redirecting member 13 b turns the gas flow 2 e , at approximately right angles and redirects the flow out a port 13 a . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention that allows for redirection of the gas flow 2 e and various means of attaching the burst disk . in this embodiment of the invention the standard gas projector 1 is fitted with a high volume valve 6 c , with remote controller 12 and 12 a , with a base 11 shaped like an artillery shell . the burst hat seal 4 can accommodate a burst hat 2 , being retained by ledge 5 d ; or the wafer burst disk 2 g can alternatively clamped in by retainer ring 4 c . fig1 also illustrates a sonic energy concentrator that is meant to work most efficiently in the mode where the wafer like burst disk 2 g is located at the retention ring 4 c . for this preferred embodiment the sonic energy concentrator 5 a creates a very efficient secondary resonant cavity , and also acts as a broadcast horn to project the sound in the desired direction . fig1 also includes a redirecting member 13 b , which is in this case blended into the sonic energy concentrator . as can be readily appreciated , from the forgoing examples , the sonic energy concentrator can take many forms , but still be within the ambit of the invention . if the burst hat 2 is located in the burst hat seal 4 ; burst disk 4 c , is not normally used . however , for some applications a staged burst sequence might for certain applications be desired , especially where very high energy sonic booms are required . for these applications the secondary resonant chamber might be pumped by utilizing an intermittent pulse created by first pulsing the valve 6 c , and then using a high speed valve in place of the burst disk 2 a or alternatively , the burst disk 2 a might be of the split type , well known to the art , and disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 831 , 475 by richard i . daniel , that would permit intermittent opening and closing of the seal as the pressure in vessel 7 increased and then was relived by the temporary opening of the split seal , and as the pressure dropped with its release , the split seal would reseal , and the pressure would rebuild for another cycle . if a high speed electronically controlled valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 at the burst hat seal 4 and a electronically controlled high speed valve is used at 6 c , and perhaps a high speed valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 g , and the opening and closing of the valves are coordinated , to maximize resonance in the secondary resonant chamber , pumped by harmonic resonance in the primary resonant chamber 7 , then very intense sonic pulses can be created . the pulse finally exiting the orifice at 4 c , can also be transformed into a vortex , by attaching a vortex generator ring 4 b , described below . fig1 illustrates how a vortex ring might be attached or incorporated into the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with standard orifice 4 a , which has added a thin ring 4 b that is designed to slow the periphery of the gas flow 2 e as it exits the unit . as it does so , the centre of the gas flow speeds up relative to the flow on the periphery . if the flow of the gas 2 e , takes the form of short pulses , vortexes will be formed at each pulse . a vortex is very stable and can entrain particulate matter and carry it for distances far greater than a simple stream of gas , which quickly diffuses . this feature allows the invention to produce much more realistic mushroom clouds that occur with conventional explosions . the vortex also will impart a percussive impact which can be felt by a person its path . it is a feature of this invention that makes the device much more realistic in safely simulating the sounds , smoke and with this feature the percussive impact of an exploding device . the actual dimensions of the rings , to create such an effect for the many conditions that will arise for the various embodiments of the invention are well known to the art of vortex generation . suffice it to say , that these various implementations are all within the ambit of this invention . in fig1 a simple arrangement might be to have a burst hat 2 at burst hat seal 4 , and a vortex ring generator located at ring retainer 4 c . this arrangement would deliver a pulse to the vortex ring generator , with sonic concentration and horn amplification by the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . if a split type of burse disk is substituted for the burst seal 2 a in the burst hat 2 , and is located in burst hat seal 4 , the controller can direct the valve 6 c to release an intermittent pulse , which results in a series of reports . if a vortex generator is added at 4 c , these pulses can be converted in vortexes . fig1 illustrates how an auxiliary redirector 13 can incorporate vortex ring generators as well as simple ports . in this example the inside edges of the port are as thin as possible , and a tube 13 c is formed around the port , having an inside diameter somewhat larger than the diameter of the port 13 a . as mentioned above these relative sizes will vary depending upon the conditions that prevail , and these design parameters are well known to the engineering art of fluid dynamics and mechanical engineering . a nosecone 14 has been attached to the embodiment illustrated on fig1 . while only one vortex 4 b generator is shown on fig1 , any number can be utilized . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention . this is a simple , modular system in which the compressed gas cartridge 6 is pushed by a piston 10 , in response to an input at 11 a of force 11 b , which moves the piston 10 forward and the compressed gas cartridge 6 , into a vented lance 9 a , well known to the art . this embodiment used a gas cartridge with a seal type valve , but it is apparent that other embodiments could just as easily use another type of valve , well known to the art , including a high volume valve instead . fig1 includes an optional spring 10 c to reset the tank and piston at the completion of the desired release of gas from the tank . in this example the spring is a belleville washer 10 c , but a coil spring , or other spring might just as easily be used . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 also includes a simple valve 8 d , which could be a flapper valve or other type well known to the art to prevent particulate matter from back flowing into the lance 9 a and cartridge 6 or piston 10 . fig1 includes a sonic energy concentrator 5 a , which is suspended from the walls forming the chamber 7 , by one or more supports , around which the gas flow 2 e is free to pass . this embodiment of the invention can accommodate a burst hat 2 as illustrated , or a wafer burst disk at 4 c , or both . fig1 illustrates the pressure release unit including a burst hat 2 and a vortex generator 4 b which can screw into or be attached by other means to a gas projector 1 , such as that illustrated on fig1 . although the embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig1 shows only one retainer ring 4 c , that accommodates a simple burst disk , it should be noted that any number of retainer rings 4 c , could be stacked on top of each other , with appropriate connecting threads , or other means , to produce the desired effects . for example , a simple wafer type burst disk 2 g might be in the bottom retainer rings 4 c , and an additional retainer ring , immediately above it , might retain a vortex ring generator 4 b . fig2 illustrates a side - firing pressure release unit with redirecting vane 13 b that provides redirecting means to the top of the gas projector 1 , illustrated on fig1 . this particular accessory is side firing , with deflector vane 13 b redirecting the flow 2 e at 90 degrees , through port 13 a . it should be noted that these preferred embodiments are meant to be only illustrative of the principal of redirecting the flow , and other embodiments of the invention can project the flow in various directions , and be within the ambit of the invention . fig2 illustrates a further way in which the air projector illustrated on fig1 can be modified to project the sonic report and payload , if any , in any particular direction . in the example illustrated in fig2 , this is 90 degrees , but other embodiments could direct them in any particular direction and be within the ambit of the invention . the embodiment illustrated in fig2 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , and has a similar redirection vane 13 b and sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this example of the invention , the burst disk 2 a has burst 2 c , sending a pulse of gas 2 e past the vortex ring generator 4 b , to produce a vortex 2 f . fig2 , and fig2 illustrate how the gas projectors can be daisy - chained together to ignite at approximately the same time . in these examples of the preferred embodiment a number of gas projectors 1 are placed in a vest that is meant to simulate a suicide vest , for training security personnel . in this example of the preferred embodiment , the gas projectors 1 are secured to a belt 15 , which is cinched around part of a person &# 39 ; s body . the canister 16 , containing a fluid or gas can be motivated by the operator to travel down the tube 12 b and cause the gas to be released from gas cartridge 6 , by such means as described in the forgoing examples . fig2 illustrates gas projectors 1 , that are similar to those illustrated on fig1 , but any gas projectors can be used and come within the ambit of the invention . the tubes 12 b can be connected to the gas projectors at ha and cause all the pistons 10 to move in direction 11 b all at approximately the same time . this will result in the gas being released at approximately the same time , and then a loud report and projection of the payload , in a manner described above . fig2 illustrates how the gas projectors can be individually connected to controlling means similar to that described in fig1 . in this example the controlling means direct the fluid or gas down tubes 12 b individually , so that the gas projectors 1 can be made to ignite in any sequence desired . the controller might be equipped with a wired or wireless remote control to control part or all of the functions of the controller itself . as mentioned above , the invention can take many forms . the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated on fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c is in the form of a mortar . it however has the principal elements of the invention , as will be appreciated in its detailed description . the mortar tube 19 is simply a tube with a closed end at one end , the base , and an open end at the other . the gas projector 1 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , but with the addition of a tail fin 18 , a streamlined cartridge holder 5 and burst hat seal 4 , as well as a payload tube 7 a , nosecone 17 ( the mortar projectile ) and additional gas ports 8 d . fig2 a illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just before the rod 19 a makes contact with piston 10 . at this point the compressed gas cartridge 6 is not discharging any gas . fig2 b illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just as the rod 19 a has made contact with piston 10 and moved it and the abutting gas cartridge 6 in direction 11 b ; causing the lance 9 a to break the seal in said gas cartridge 6 . the released gas 2 e then moves through passage 8 a into the bottom of the payload tube 7 a . simultaneously the released gas 2 e passes around and up the space between the payload tube 7 a and the walls of the barrel or chamber 7 , through ports 8 d , ( the ports 8 d being the only passage available to the top of the nosecone ) and into the space between nose cone or plug 17 and the burst disk 2 a . at this point the nosecone 17 does not move vertically , as the gas pressure is the same at the bottom as the top ; and also the nosecone 17 may be restrained by some of its upper surface coming into contact with the bottom of the burst disk 2 . the “ o ” rings 10 e maintain a sliding , gas tight seal , between the nosecone 17 and the payload tube 7 a . as the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises , the burst disk bulges , as illustrated on fig2 b . at some point the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises to the point that the burst disk 2 a bursts 2 c . fig2 c , illustrates what happens at after this point . after the burst disk fails 2 c , the gas pressure at the top of the nosecone suddenly drops relative to the gas pressure at the bottom of the nosecone . this causes the nosecone to move up the tube thereby covering the ports 8 a and cutting off further movement of gas through these ports 8 a . all the gas that continues to be released 2 e then acts just on the bottom surface of the nosecone 17 , projecting it upward 17 a . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , the nosecone contains a sonic energy concentrator 5 a . this can be in any shape , as mentioned earlier , however , in most applications it will be a concave shape in the top of the nosecone , which creates a secondary resonant chamber , concentrating and promoting the sonic shock front , and also acting as a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward . it is important to note that this embodiment of the invention is consistent with the separation of the gas , that drives the shock front and causes the report , from the gas the later projects the payload . that is , the gas that drives the shock front is unencumbered by payload . in fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c , the payload is the nosecone 17 and the particulate matter 3 and 3 a . note also that when the gas enters port 8 a , the gas fluidizes the particulate matter as the nosecone is elevated on member 7 b , creating a space above the particulate matter 3 and bellow the bottom of the nosecone 17 . fig2 a and 26 b illustrates a further embodiment of the invention that incorporates the principal features that comprise the invention in a form that resembles a foot depression mine . as one can readily appreciate , the embodiment illustrated in fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all resemble the gas projector illustrated in fig1 and fig5 , except that in the former group of embodiments , the piston 10 pushes the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , rather than the other way around . also the piston 10 and gas cartridge 6 are separated by the burst disk 2 a , which is somewhat flexible and allows sufficient movement of both , without bursting . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b include a sonic energy concentrator 5 a that can take many shapes , but most are in the form of a concave surface that creates a secondary resonant chamber that , as mentioned above , enhances the force of the shock front and the consequent volume of the report , while also acting like a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward and away from the device . after the piston 10 is depressed , sliding through a bushing 20 , located in the burst hat seal 4 , as illustrated in fig2 b , the gas is released from the compressed gas cartridge 6 and advances 2 e up the chamber 7 , thence around the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . when the pressure is sufficiently high to burst the burst disk 2 c , it advances through ports 4 a and beyond . it is important to note that in this embodiment , the sonic energy concentrator , provides some further means of separating the first blast of air that breaks the burst disk 2 , 2 c from the payload 3 , in this example , particulate matter 3 , even when the air blast , floats the material somewhat , readying it for transport , as the pressure drops and the air begins to stream 2 e entraining the payload . fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all have “ o ” rings 8 b and restraining means 8 c that prevent any particulate matter or other debris from back flowing into the valve . this novel use of an “ o ” ring that transforms it into a valve by radial expansion and compression is an important feature of the invention , and is found on many implementations of the invention . fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a tripwire type of mine and is identical to the compression mine , illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b , except that the spring 10 c is preloaded by pulling the piston 10 up and temporarily latching it in that position . for example , fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a cotter pin 21 that has been inserted into a hole 21 a , in the piston 10 , while the spring has been put into compression . in fig2 a and 27 b , a tripwire 22 has been connected to the pin . when the tripwire is pulled , the spring 10 c recovers , drawing the piston down into the chamber 7 , and pressing the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , causing the chamber 7 to pressurize , and the burst disk 2 to burst 2 c . the tripwire mine illustrated on 27 a and 27 b both have sonic energy concentrators 5 a and “ o ” rings , which serve the same purposes as they do on the other embodiments of the invention herein . it should be noted that while the reference has been made herein to gas cartridges , it should be understood that the any gas supply would suffice , whether inside the device or partly or completely outside it . it should also be noted that there are many methods of controlling the flow of the gas , will known to the art , including electronic , electrical , pneumatic , hydraulic types , to name just a few example . it should be understood that embodiments that contain any of these methods , which are well known to the art , are within the ambit of this invention . it should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the examples given in this disclosure , but are examples of a larger class of sound and material projection devices , or both . while the burst hat 2 and the burst hat seal have a complementary conic - cylindrical shape , it is to be understood that they may be any shape , provided they present the seal disk 2 a to the air flow or pressure 2 e to effect the purpose of causing the seal disk 2 a to burst 2 c . while the embodiments of the invention are described mostly in the context of using a burst disk to cause a sudden venting of the compressed gas flow , sufficient to cause a loud report , as herein described , it is to be understood that this is only an example of high - speed methods of tuning on the flow of gas , and can utilize other high speed valves , of whatever types . while the preferred embodiment of the invention locates the sonic shock concentrator inside the exit port of the gas projector , the exit port being the last orifice on the device , in the gas stream 2 e , it is to understood that some embodiments of the invention , can locate the sonic shock concentrator 5 a outside the said exit port , in the exiting gas stream 2 e . while the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrates various means of actuating the valve 6 c or breaking the seal 6 a of the compressed gas cartridge , it should be understood that these are merely illustrative of many means well known to the art . for example the gas projector could be made in the form of a gun and the lance 9 a could just as easily be actuated by a finger trigger that would cause the lance 9 a to move forward , releasing the compressed gas , whether in a canister or supplied externally to the device . while many features of the invention have been illustrated in forms that resemble explosive devices and munitions , it is to be understood that the gas projectors can take many forms , such as firecrackers , confetti guns , to name just a few . it should also be noted that certain embodiment can have any combination of features that comprise the embodiments of the invention and still be within the ambit of the invention herein disclosed . while the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand . such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the inventions and appended claims .
Is this patent appropriately categorized as 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting'?
Should this patent be classified under 'Chemistry; Metallurgy'?
0.25
b54415f40a24e90a975daba07ec86abdfe402f9c7fda9aeb5ab75293e8010247
0.084961
0.007813
0.011658
0.000519
0.21875
0.008606
null
the simulation of varied military weapons and munitions is necessary for the proper training of troops . these simulated weapons must be realistic in providing a loud bang or report that would normally accompany their discharge , and also an accompanying smoke and / or dust cloud . at the same time the devices must be safe , not just in use , but when stored and transported by untrained recruits . for safety reasons , the devices described in this disclosure are powered by compressed gas , supplied in tanks or cartridges of various sizes . it is to be understood however , that the invention is not limited to this means of power , and the devices could be adapted to be powered by combustible materials and be within the ambit of the invention . although this invention is directed at producing simulated military devices , some preferred embodiments of the invention can be used for entertainment , in place of pyrotechnics . other preferred embodiments of the invention can also be used to project materials , such as confetti , where an accompanying loud sonic report is required . it should also be appreciated that although the preferred embodiments produce a loud sonic report and the transport of a payload , some preferred embodiments may do only one or the other . the invention and its many embodiments describe a method of separating the sonic report from the transport of payload . in this patent , payload can refer to any material that is transported out of the device , and can include particulate matter such as aggregate , baby powder , talc , or paper such as confetti or a liquid , aerosol , or gas . as described above , the creation of the sonic report is due mainly to propagation of a shock wave caused by the bursting of a burst disk . the use of a burst disk is the most practical and inexpensive method of ensuring a rapid release of compressed gas that is substantially instantaneous , that collides with the ambient air , thus creating a loud bang . to create a loud report , the escaping gas need only travel a short distance , but do so at high velocity . the requirement that it be at the highest possible velocity , means that it must be unencumbered by foreign material , such as parts of the payload . that is , it must not have been slowed down by entraining foreign materials , and accelerating them . the resonant frequency of the gas volume that powers the sonic stroke , immediately after the bursting of the burst disk is of importance , as the energy should be compressed into a relatively short pulse . also of importance is that the sonic report propagates in all directions , and that which returns back into the device , must be redirected back out of the barrel . as mentioned above , the transport of the payload requires a completely different energy regime . transport of the payload requires a long duration , steady flow of gas out of the device , and for this reason , the invention separate these two regimes . the invention can best be described by referring to the drawings that accompany this patent . fig1 incorporates many aspects of the invention . the device illustrated on fig1 can take many shapes and guises , and can for example have rocket fins and nosecones attached . the device illustrated in fig1 is comprised of a chamber or barrel 7 that contains the payload , in this case particular matter 3 , such as baby powder . the bottom portion of the device , referred to as the igniter , and identified as 1 a on fig1 , projects a vented lance 9 a , that either opens a valve 6 b attached to a compressed gas cartridge 6 , or pierces a seal that allows the compressed gas to exit the tank at relatively high volume . fig1 illustrates the igniter that is about to pierce the seal . the igniter in this embodiment of the invention includes a piston 10 that travels up and down , a cylinder 9 in response to a force 11 b that acts on the bottom of the piston 10 . this force 11 b can be supplied by a simple mechanical rod or be in the form of a gas or liquid volume , traveling up and down the tube 11 a , in the base 11 . fig1 illustrates the force 11 b acting in an upward direction that forces the piston 10 and the attached vented lance 9 a . fig1 also illustrates an optional spring 10 c , which compresses and resets the device upon recovery , after the upward force 11 b is relaxed . to prevent the escape of gas , “ o ” rings are employed at certain connections , where gas might otherwise escape and two such “ o ” rings are illustrated 10 a , 10 b . fig1 illustrates a gas relief valve 10 d , which allows the piston to travel up the cylinder , without compressing the gas above . the vented lance 9 a , that is suitable for piercing seal type gas cartridges 6 , is illustrated in more detail on fig4 . the vented lance 9 a has attached a rim 9 c that deflects the escaping gas into the waiting port and passage 8 a on fig1 . this rim 9 c prevents condensate , caused from the cool escaping gas , to enter between the piston 10 and cylinder 9 , which might otherwise seize them . the vented lance 9 a pierces the seal 6 a and allows the compressed gas to escape through the lance vents 9 b and exits as a stream 2 e . the compressed gas is then directed by rim 9 c to ports and passages 8 a in gas distributor 8 . fig1 shows two such ports 8 a , but many preferred embodiments can have any number of such means of transporting the gas . to prevent the fouling of the passages , an “ o ” ring 8 b is placed around the gas distributor in such a manner that when the gas is passing through the passage 8 a with sufficient force , it will radially expand the otherwise sealing “ o ” ring 8 b and unseat it allowing for the passage of gas around it , and into the chamber or barrel 7 . when the gas drops below a certain pressure , the “ o ” ring 8 b will reseal the passage and thereby prevent any particulate matter remaining in the chamber 7 from back flowing into the passage 8 a and beyond . some preferred embodiments include a retaining rim or pegs 8 c or other such restraining means , to ensure that the “ o ” ring 8 b does not roll up or down the gas distributor 8 , with it is in its expanded state . the gas passing out of the passage 8 will rapidly fluidize the material that has been placed in the canister 7 . the fluidizing of this material will greatly assist in later projecting it out of the gas projector 1 . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 includes a gas cartridge 6 that is contained within a holder 5 , but can of course be secured by many other convenient means . fig1 has attached to it or incorporated into it a dish shaped platform sa that is a sound and pressure reflector and that is referred to herein as a sonic energy concentrator . this dish or horn shaped form sa is meant to be illustrative of a large class of forms that focus or reflect sonic energy , including horns , bells to name just a few . other preferred embodiments may however utilize forms that are flat or convex ; to disperse the sound and make it more omni directional as it exits the chamber . the other purpose of the sonic energy concentrator sa is to establish a secondary resonant cavity between the said sonic energy concentrator and the burst disk 2 a it faces . since the gas pulse that gives rise to the shock front need only be short in length and duration , but high in velocity , it is advantageous to have a relatively short resonant cavity . it is to be understood that fig1 is only illustrative of one aspect of the invention , and that the size , shape and location , relative to the bottom surface of the burst disk 2 a will vary depending upon many factors , such as the size of the primary resonant cavity , the distance beneath the sonic energy concentrator sa , the pressures at which the system operates and the gas that is used as an energy source , to name a few . at the top of the cavity is located a burst hat 2 , that includes a burst disk 2 a , which is snapped into place over a small ledge sd , as illustrated on fig1 , or by other convenient means well known to the art . the burst hat 2 is shaped to seal with burst hat seal 4 , when the pressure in cavity 7 increases above the pressure outside the cavity . while fig1 illustrates a hat shaped burst disk , this is merely illustrative of a class of burst disks that can for example be simple wafer like disks sealed at their perimeters , by means well known to the art . the purpose of the burst disk is to contain the increasing pressure within the chamber as the compressed gas cartridge empties ; and then at some predetermined pressure , to fail suddenly , allowing the gas to escape out through the orifice 4 a . this burst disk serves as an inexpensive high speed valve , which of course some preferred embodiments might substitute . as described above , when the burst disk 2 a or substituted high speed valve opens , the high pressure gas accelerates quickly in the preferred embodiment , as there is no payload to impede it . this acceleration is aided by the tapered burst hat 2 that forms a venturi and the sonic energy concentrator with relatively short pulse resonance . a shock front is created when this high velocity gas meats the relatively slow moving ambient air , immediately adjacent to the boundary of the disk , when it breaks . the result is a shock front , shock wave and resulting sonic report . fig5 illustrates the system at the point that the piston 10 has moved up the cylinder 9 in response to upward force 11 b , causing the gas to escape from the breached seal 6 a , and the gas to pass into the chamber 7 , as above described . fig5 illustrates the burst seal having burst 2 c , the payload material 3 a starting to exit the chamber 7 . also illustrated between the sonic energy concentrator 5 a and the just burst disk , is the secondary resonant cavity , that quickly upon the bursting of the burst disk 2 a , assumes the role of a sound bell or horn , directing the sound of the shock wave produced , outward , away from the chamber 7 and accelerating the shock front formation . just after the burst disk 2 a fails 2 c and generally following the sonic report , the payload , in this example , particulate matter , having been already fluidized , is entrained by the large volume of slower moving , lower pressure gas , that then exits the chamber 7 , through the orifice 4 a . while the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 and fig5 illustrate a conic - cylindrical hat 2 that incorporates the burst disk 2 a , the hat can also contain part or the entire payload . while the preferred embodiment of the invention , has the escaping gas acting on the burst disk first , to create a loud report , as described above ; there may be circumstances where one may wish to project the material with higher or in a more clustered form , in which case it may be advantageous to fill the burst hat 2 with such material and contain it with a cover to form a burst hat container 2 j , such as a peal top 2 b , well known to the art . in such preferred embodiments , some or all of the other features of the invention may be utilized and therefore still be within the ambit of the invention . one embodiment of the invention is to convert the burst hat 2 into a burst hat container 2 j for the material 3 to be projected by the gas projector 1 by adding a peal top 2 b or other top that can be removed or pierced . in most cases the burst hat container 2 j is filled with the precise amount that will give a particular effect , for a particular device . these burst containers 2 j , can then be provided already packed in handy portions , and in most cases the user will simply empty the ideal portion into the chamber 7 , and then place the empty burst hat container 2 in the burst hat seal , as illustrated in fig1 . fig8 illustrates the packaging of the material in a way consistent with one of the preferred embodiments that is to ensure that the initial gas pulse that bursts the disk is unimpeded with payload . the burst hat container 2 j illustrated in fig8 has a partly or wholly vacant channel 2 h running from the peal top 2 b to the burst disk 2 a . the channel can be created by inserting a tube preferably made of material that will maintain its integrity only briefly to allow the initial pulse of gas to break the burst disk 2 a and create the shock front . the tube or member of other suitable shape can for example be made of paper or friable material such as ceramic or may simply be formed by pressing or adding a binder to the particular matter that forms the payload . for example , if the payload is talc , a tube might be pressed into the talk , after it is poured into the burst hat container 2 j , and then the surface of the tube so formed could be sprayed or imparted into it by other well know means , a binder , that would stabilize the tube , and yet , after providing a channel for the initial pulse of gas , collapse or partly collapse , so the material might better be transported out of the orifice in a uniform spray . the hole adjacent to the peal top 2 i shown in fig8 can extend through the top or can be broken open by simply pushing the inverted burst hat onto the shock tube 5 b . some embodiments of the invention include a shock tube 5 b as shown on fig6 , most of which include some means , such as a port 5 c for the gas to enter the lumen of the shock tube 5 b and gain access to the bottom of the shock disk 2 a . in the example illustrated on fig6 , this point of entry is a hole 5 c just above the sonic shock concentrator 5 a . other embodiments of the invention have no shock tube and rely instead on the channel 2 h as shown of fig8 , and simply have a whole 2 i precut or that can be easily removed prior to insertion . other embodiments have points of weakness around the hole that allow the cover of the hole 2 i to fail when the pressure begins to rise in the chamber . other embodiments utilize other methods well known to the art of packaging . as mentioned above , some embodiments of the invention rely on a high volume valve to control the emptying of the compressed gas cartridge 6 , rather than a pierce disk , as illustrated on fig1 . fig9 illustrates the system with such a valve 6 b , in this example connected directly to the said compressed gas cartridge 6 . fig9 includes an extension 6 c which is acted upon by the lance 9 a to open the flow of gas to the gas distributor , and in this example channel 8 a . the high volume valves are generally used for larger gas cartridges and the pierce disks for the smaller ones . fig9 also illustrates another embodiment of one aspect of the invention , being the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this embodiment , the device has a base which fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . these ease of installation means that various shaped sonic energy concentrators 5 a can be used to address particular performance requirements , such as the shape and intensity of the sound field generated by the device . for example , for some applications , a very narrowly focused , high intensity field will be required , necessitating a sonic energy concentrator with a deeper dish at the top of the unit . other applications would require a flatter or even convex surface to vary the shape and intensity of the sonic field . the design specifications of all these embodiments of the invention will depend upon the particular circumstances of the device dimensions , gas pressures used , type of energy inputs , to name just a few . fig1 is view of the principal components of a typical gas projection system . they are : the igniter unit , 1 a ; the gas delivery system , including the gas distributor , 1 b ; and the pressure release unit , 1 c . fig1 illustrates the typical igniter unit 1 a . in this example , illustrated in fig1 , the piston 10 movement is controlled by a fluid or gas entering the channel 11 a , via a tube or conduit 12 b . the controller 12 controls the delivery of this controlling gas or fluid and its design is well known to the art of fluid and gas controllers . in some embodiments , this controller can in turn be controlled by a more remote wireless , or wired device 12 a . although this example of the embodiment illustrated on fig1 utilizes a gas or fluid media to push up the piston 10 , other embodiments would utilize other means well known to the art to control the motion of the lance 9 a , and these might be wholly electric or such other means well known to the art . fig1 is meant to illustrate one embodiment of the invention that includes a redirecting means for the sonic energy and subsequently the matter that is ejected out of the chamber 7 of the gas projector 1 . in this example an auxiliary cap 13 is screwed onto the top of the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with treaded top . the flow of compressed gas 2 e passes the burst disk 2 c and then is redirected at 90 degrees , in approximately a 180 degree field by an approximately inverted conic section 13 b , and thence through ports of various sizes and locations , 13 a . fig1 also illustrates the use of a sonic energy concentrator 5 a of the type illustrated in fig9 , that fits over the compressed gas cartridge 6 . this example illustrates the many shapes the basic gas projector 1 can assume . in this case the base 11 is shaped like the head of an artillery shell . this preferred embodiment might be used to simulate a road - side bomb made from an artillery shell . this unit might be used to train soldiers on how to locate , avoid and disarm such devices . in this example , the embodiment illustrated includes a remote control device 12 and 12 a for igniting the unit , as earlier described . it is important to note that this example of a preferred embodiment of the invention uses the same burst hat 2 as in fig1 , and is retained by the same snap in ledge 5 d . fig1 illustrates an auxiliary cap 13 that has a more focused redirector . in this case a redirecting member 13 b turns the gas flow 2 e , at approximately right angles and redirects the flow out a port 13 a . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention that allows for redirection of the gas flow 2 e and various means of attaching the burst disk . in this embodiment of the invention the standard gas projector 1 is fitted with a high volume valve 6 c , with remote controller 12 and 12 a , with a base 11 shaped like an artillery shell . the burst hat seal 4 can accommodate a burst hat 2 , being retained by ledge 5 d ; or the wafer burst disk 2 g can alternatively clamped in by retainer ring 4 c . fig1 also illustrates a sonic energy concentrator that is meant to work most efficiently in the mode where the wafer like burst disk 2 g is located at the retention ring 4 c . for this preferred embodiment the sonic energy concentrator 5 a creates a very efficient secondary resonant cavity , and also acts as a broadcast horn to project the sound in the desired direction . fig1 also includes a redirecting member 13 b , which is in this case blended into the sonic energy concentrator . as can be readily appreciated , from the forgoing examples , the sonic energy concentrator can take many forms , but still be within the ambit of the invention . if the burst hat 2 is located in the burst hat seal 4 ; burst disk 4 c , is not normally used . however , for some applications a staged burst sequence might for certain applications be desired , especially where very high energy sonic booms are required . for these applications the secondary resonant chamber might be pumped by utilizing an intermittent pulse created by first pulsing the valve 6 c , and then using a high speed valve in place of the burst disk 2 a or alternatively , the burst disk 2 a might be of the split type , well known to the art , and disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 831 , 475 by richard i . daniel , that would permit intermittent opening and closing of the seal as the pressure in vessel 7 increased and then was relived by the temporary opening of the split seal , and as the pressure dropped with its release , the split seal would reseal , and the pressure would rebuild for another cycle . if a high speed electronically controlled valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 at the burst hat seal 4 and a electronically controlled high speed valve is used at 6 c , and perhaps a high speed valve is used in place of the burst disk 2 g , and the opening and closing of the valves are coordinated , to maximize resonance in the secondary resonant chamber , pumped by harmonic resonance in the primary resonant chamber 7 , then very intense sonic pulses can be created . the pulse finally exiting the orifice at 4 c , can also be transformed into a vortex , by attaching a vortex generator ring 4 b , described below . fig1 illustrates how a vortex ring might be attached or incorporated into the pressure release unit , in this case the burst hat seal 4 , with standard orifice 4 a , which has added a thin ring 4 b that is designed to slow the periphery of the gas flow 2 e as it exits the unit . as it does so , the centre of the gas flow speeds up relative to the flow on the periphery . if the flow of the gas 2 e , takes the form of short pulses , vortexes will be formed at each pulse . a vortex is very stable and can entrain particulate matter and carry it for distances far greater than a simple stream of gas , which quickly diffuses . this feature allows the invention to produce much more realistic mushroom clouds that occur with conventional explosions . the vortex also will impart a percussive impact which can be felt by a person its path . it is a feature of this invention that makes the device much more realistic in safely simulating the sounds , smoke and with this feature the percussive impact of an exploding device . the actual dimensions of the rings , to create such an effect for the many conditions that will arise for the various embodiments of the invention are well known to the art of vortex generation . suffice it to say , that these various implementations are all within the ambit of this invention . in fig1 a simple arrangement might be to have a burst hat 2 at burst hat seal 4 , and a vortex ring generator located at ring retainer 4 c . this arrangement would deliver a pulse to the vortex ring generator , with sonic concentration and horn amplification by the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . if a split type of burse disk is substituted for the burst seal 2 a in the burst hat 2 , and is located in burst hat seal 4 , the controller can direct the valve 6 c to release an intermittent pulse , which results in a series of reports . if a vortex generator is added at 4 c , these pulses can be converted in vortexes . fig1 illustrates how an auxiliary redirector 13 can incorporate vortex ring generators as well as simple ports . in this example the inside edges of the port are as thin as possible , and a tube 13 c is formed around the port , having an inside diameter somewhat larger than the diameter of the port 13 a . as mentioned above these relative sizes will vary depending upon the conditions that prevail , and these design parameters are well known to the engineering art of fluid dynamics and mechanical engineering . a nosecone 14 has been attached to the embodiment illustrated on fig1 . while only one vortex 4 b generator is shown on fig1 , any number can be utilized . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of the invention . this is a simple , modular system in which the compressed gas cartridge 6 is pushed by a piston 10 , in response to an input at 11 a of force 11 b , which moves the piston 10 forward and the compressed gas cartridge 6 , into a vented lance 9 a , well known to the art . this embodiment used a gas cartridge with a seal type valve , but it is apparent that other embodiments could just as easily use another type of valve , well known to the art , including a high volume valve instead . fig1 includes an optional spring 10 c to reset the tank and piston at the completion of the desired release of gas from the tank . in this example the spring is a belleville washer 10 c , but a coil spring , or other spring might just as easily be used . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 also includes a simple valve 8 d , which could be a flapper valve or other type well known to the art to prevent particulate matter from back flowing into the lance 9 a and cartridge 6 or piston 10 . fig1 includes a sonic energy concentrator 5 a , which is suspended from the walls forming the chamber 7 , by one or more supports , around which the gas flow 2 e is free to pass . this embodiment of the invention can accommodate a burst hat 2 as illustrated , or a wafer burst disk at 4 c , or both . fig1 illustrates the pressure release unit including a burst hat 2 and a vortex generator 4 b which can screw into or be attached by other means to a gas projector 1 , such as that illustrated on fig1 . although the embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig1 shows only one retainer ring 4 c , that accommodates a simple burst disk , it should be noted that any number of retainer rings 4 c , could be stacked on top of each other , with appropriate connecting threads , or other means , to produce the desired effects . for example , a simple wafer type burst disk 2 g might be in the bottom retainer rings 4 c , and an additional retainer ring , immediately above it , might retain a vortex ring generator 4 b . fig2 illustrates a side - firing pressure release unit with redirecting vane 13 b that provides redirecting means to the top of the gas projector 1 , illustrated on fig1 . this particular accessory is side firing , with deflector vane 13 b redirecting the flow 2 e at 90 degrees , through port 13 a . it should be noted that these preferred embodiments are meant to be only illustrative of the principal of redirecting the flow , and other embodiments of the invention can project the flow in various directions , and be within the ambit of the invention . fig2 illustrates a further way in which the air projector illustrated on fig1 can be modified to project the sonic report and payload , if any , in any particular direction . in the example illustrated in fig2 , this is 90 degrees , but other embodiments could direct them in any particular direction and be within the ambit of the invention . the embodiment illustrated in fig2 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , and has a similar redirection vane 13 b and sonic energy concentrator 5 a . in this example of the invention , the burst disk 2 a has burst 2 c , sending a pulse of gas 2 e past the vortex ring generator 4 b , to produce a vortex 2 f . fig2 , and fig2 illustrate how the gas projectors can be daisy - chained together to ignite at approximately the same time . in these examples of the preferred embodiment a number of gas projectors 1 are placed in a vest that is meant to simulate a suicide vest , for training security personnel . in this example of the preferred embodiment , the gas projectors 1 are secured to a belt 15 , which is cinched around part of a person &# 39 ; s body . the canister 16 , containing a fluid or gas can be motivated by the operator to travel down the tube 12 b and cause the gas to be released from gas cartridge 6 , by such means as described in the forgoing examples . fig2 illustrates gas projectors 1 , that are similar to those illustrated on fig1 , but any gas projectors can be used and come within the ambit of the invention . the tubes 12 b can be connected to the gas projectors at ha and cause all the pistons 10 to move in direction 11 b all at approximately the same time . this will result in the gas being released at approximately the same time , and then a loud report and projection of the payload , in a manner described above . fig2 illustrates how the gas projectors can be individually connected to controlling means similar to that described in fig1 . in this example the controlling means direct the fluid or gas down tubes 12 b individually , so that the gas projectors 1 can be made to ignite in any sequence desired . the controller might be equipped with a wired or wireless remote control to control part or all of the functions of the controller itself . as mentioned above , the invention can take many forms . the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated on fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c is in the form of a mortar . it however has the principal elements of the invention , as will be appreciated in its detailed description . the mortar tube 19 is simply a tube with a closed end at one end , the base , and an open end at the other . the gas projector 1 is similar to that illustrated in fig1 , but with the addition of a tail fin 18 , a streamlined cartridge holder 5 and burst hat seal 4 , as well as a payload tube 7 a , nosecone 17 ( the mortar projectile ) and additional gas ports 8 d . fig2 a illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just before the rod 19 a makes contact with piston 10 . at this point the compressed gas cartridge 6 is not discharging any gas . fig2 b illustrates the mortar round ( the gas projector 1 ) being dropped 11 c into the mortar tube 19 , at that point just as the rod 19 a has made contact with piston 10 and moved it and the abutting gas cartridge 6 in direction 11 b ; causing the lance 9 a to break the seal in said gas cartridge 6 . the released gas 2 e then moves through passage 8 a into the bottom of the payload tube 7 a . simultaneously the released gas 2 e passes around and up the space between the payload tube 7 a and the walls of the barrel or chamber 7 , through ports 8 d , ( the ports 8 d being the only passage available to the top of the nosecone ) and into the space between nose cone or plug 17 and the burst disk 2 a . at this point the nosecone 17 does not move vertically , as the gas pressure is the same at the bottom as the top ; and also the nosecone 17 may be restrained by some of its upper surface coming into contact with the bottom of the burst disk 2 . the “ o ” rings 10 e maintain a sliding , gas tight seal , between the nosecone 17 and the payload tube 7 a . as the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises , the burst disk bulges , as illustrated on fig2 b . at some point the gas pressure in the barrel 7 rises to the point that the burst disk 2 a bursts 2 c . fig2 c , illustrates what happens at after this point . after the burst disk fails 2 c , the gas pressure at the top of the nosecone suddenly drops relative to the gas pressure at the bottom of the nosecone . this causes the nosecone to move up the tube thereby covering the ports 8 a and cutting off further movement of gas through these ports 8 a . all the gas that continues to be released 2 e then acts just on the bottom surface of the nosecone 17 , projecting it upward 17 a . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , the nosecone contains a sonic energy concentrator 5 a . this can be in any shape , as mentioned earlier , however , in most applications it will be a concave shape in the top of the nosecone , which creates a secondary resonant chamber , concentrating and promoting the sonic shock front , and also acting as a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward . it is important to note that this embodiment of the invention is consistent with the separation of the gas , that drives the shock front and causes the report , from the gas the later projects the payload . that is , the gas that drives the shock front is unencumbered by payload . in fig2 a , 25 b and 25 c , the payload is the nosecone 17 and the particulate matter 3 and 3 a . note also that when the gas enters port 8 a , the gas fluidizes the particulate matter as the nosecone is elevated on member 7 b , creating a space above the particulate matter 3 and bellow the bottom of the nosecone 17 . fig2 a and 26 b illustrates a further embodiment of the invention that incorporates the principal features that comprise the invention in a form that resembles a foot depression mine . as one can readily appreciate , the embodiment illustrated in fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all resemble the gas projector illustrated in fig1 and fig5 , except that in the former group of embodiments , the piston 10 pushes the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , rather than the other way around . also the piston 10 and gas cartridge 6 are separated by the burst disk 2 a , which is somewhat flexible and allows sufficient movement of both , without bursting . the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b include a sonic energy concentrator 5 a that can take many shapes , but most are in the form of a concave surface that creates a secondary resonant chamber that , as mentioned above , enhances the force of the shock front and the consequent volume of the report , while also acting like a bell or horn , projecting the sound forward and away from the device . after the piston 10 is depressed , sliding through a bushing 20 , located in the burst hat seal 4 , as illustrated in fig2 b , the gas is released from the compressed gas cartridge 6 and advances 2 e up the chamber 7 , thence around the sonic energy concentrator 5 a . when the pressure is sufficiently high to burst the burst disk 2 c , it advances through ports 4 a and beyond . it is important to note that in this embodiment , the sonic energy concentrator , provides some further means of separating the first blast of air that breaks the burst disk 2 , 2 c from the payload 3 , in this example , particulate matter 3 , even when the air blast , floats the material somewhat , readying it for transport , as the pressure drops and the air begins to stream 2 e entraining the payload . fig2 a , 26 b , 27 a and 27 b all have “ o ” rings 8 b and restraining means 8 c that prevent any particulate matter or other debris from back flowing into the valve . this novel use of an “ o ” ring that transforms it into a valve by radial expansion and compression is an important feature of the invention , and is found on many implementations of the invention . fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a tripwire type of mine and is identical to the compression mine , illustrated in fig2 a and 26 b , except that the spring 10 c is preloaded by pulling the piston 10 up and temporarily latching it in that position . for example , fig2 a and 27 b illustrate a cotter pin 21 that has been inserted into a hole 21 a , in the piston 10 , while the spring has been put into compression . in fig2 a and 27 b , a tripwire 22 has been connected to the pin . when the tripwire is pulled , the spring 10 c recovers , drawing the piston down into the chamber 7 , and pressing the compressed gas cartridge 6 into the lance 9 a , causing the chamber 7 to pressurize , and the burst disk 2 to burst 2 c . the tripwire mine illustrated on 27 a and 27 b both have sonic energy concentrators 5 a and “ o ” rings , which serve the same purposes as they do on the other embodiments of the invention herein . it should be noted that while the reference has been made herein to gas cartridges , it should be understood that the any gas supply would suffice , whether inside the device or partly or completely outside it . it should also be noted that there are many methods of controlling the flow of the gas , will known to the art , including electronic , electrical , pneumatic , hydraulic types , to name just a few example . it should be understood that embodiments that contain any of these methods , which are well known to the art , are within the ambit of this invention . it should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the examples given in this disclosure , but are examples of a larger class of sound and material projection devices , or both . while the burst hat 2 and the burst hat seal have a complementary conic - cylindrical shape , it is to be understood that they may be any shape , provided they present the seal disk 2 a to the air flow or pressure 2 e to effect the purpose of causing the seal disk 2 a to burst 2 c . while the embodiments of the invention are described mostly in the context of using a burst disk to cause a sudden venting of the compressed gas flow , sufficient to cause a loud report , as herein described , it is to be understood that this is only an example of high - speed methods of tuning on the flow of gas , and can utilize other high speed valves , of whatever types . while the preferred embodiment of the invention locates the sonic shock concentrator inside the exit port of the gas projector , the exit port being the last orifice on the device , in the gas stream 2 e , it is to understood that some embodiments of the invention , can locate the sonic shock concentrator 5 a outside the said exit port , in the exiting gas stream 2 e . while the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrates various means of actuating the valve 6 c or breaking the seal 6 a of the compressed gas cartridge , it should be understood that these are merely illustrative of many means well known to the art . for example the gas projector could be made in the form of a gun and the lance 9 a could just as easily be actuated by a finger trigger that would cause the lance 9 a to move forward , releasing the compressed gas , whether in a canister or supplied externally to the device . while many features of the invention have been illustrated in forms that resemble explosive devices and munitions , it is to be understood that the gas projectors can take many forms , such as firecrackers , confetti guns , to name just a few . it should also be noted that certain embodiment can have any combination of features that comprise the embodiments of the invention and still be within the ambit of the invention herein disclosed . while the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand . such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the inventions and appended claims .
Is 'Mechanical Engineering; Lightning; Heating; Weapons; Blasting' the correct technical category for the patent?
Is 'Textiles; Paper' the correct technical category for the patent?
0.25
b54415f40a24e90a975daba07ec86abdfe402f9c7fda9aeb5ab75293e8010247
0.060059
0.009155
0.010986
0.000755
0.19043
0.007111