Abstract: Disclosed is a toner comprising particles of a vinyl resin, an optional colorant, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), wherein said toner particles are prepared by an emulsion aggregation process. Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to a process which comprises (a) generating an electrostatic latent image on an imaging member, and (b) developing the latent image by contacting the imaging member with charged toner particles comprising a vinyl resin, an optional colorant, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), wherein said toner particles are prepared by an emulsion aggregation process.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a guide member for directing sheets toward a transfer zone. The guide member defines a set of ribs which hold the sheets above the main surface of the guide member. Thus, any stray marking material which lands on the guide member is relatively unlikely to contact a sheet moving over the guide member.

Abstract: Methods are disclosed for fabricating spring structures in which a passive, conductive coating is deposited onto the spring structure before release. A release layer is deposited on a substrate and then a spring metal layer is formed thereon. A first mask is used to form a spring metal finger from these layers. A second mask defines a window exposing a tip of the finger. The release layer under the tip is etched through the window, and then a passive-conductive coating material (which may also have spring characteristics) is deposited on the tip. The second mask and residual coating material are then lifted off, and a third (release) mask is formed that is used to release a free end of the spring metal finger. The release mask is then stripped. When the passive-conductive coating includes spring characteristics, the stress variations of the coating help to lift the free end if the finger during release.

Abstract: A method is presented for encoding auxiliary information in digital images which enables the encoding of both compact auxiliary information specific to a given image and a secret message into a given image such that the hidden message contained therein is only revealed in such a way that neither the image itself nor the auxiliary information alone are sufficient to reveal the secret message. Specifically, a method for encoding an auxiliary message in a digital image, is presented having the first step of creating a set of Training Vectors from all N×N windowed observations of a digital image (D) and corresponding pixels of a message (I). Then, statistically estimating a function T from the set of Training Vectors which map the N×N windowed observations of the digital image (D) to the corresponding pixels of the message (I); and writing out the statistically estimated function T as a representation of the hidden message.

Abstract: A method of aligning one or more print heads in a print head unit and a system thereof. A first pattern of first symbols is printed on a print medium and a second pattern of second symbols is printed with a second print head on the print medium with one or more print heads in a manner to superpose the second pattern on the first pattern and so that at least some of the first symbols obscure a corresponding one of the second symbols. At least some of the second symbols are offset from a regular pattern and the offset distances are recorded. A user can designate at least one of the second symbols that is obscured by a corresponding one of the first symbols and the offset distance corresponding to the designated second symbol is used as an offset parameter for the second print head with respect to the first print head.

Abstract: An optical head which implements high recording density of a recording medium and which is miniaturized in size and improved in data transfer rate, a disk apparatus, and a method for manufacturing the optical head are provided. A laser beam is emitted from a semiconductor laser, the laser beam is collimated by the collimator lens to a collimated beam and reflected by a mirror, condensed by an condense lens, and incident to an incident surface of a transparent condensing medium. The condensed beam which was incident to the incident surface is refracted by the incident surface, the refracted beam is condensed on a condense surface, a beam spot is formed on the condense surface, and a near field wave leaks from a slit. The near field wave leaked from the slit propagates in a recording layer of a recording. The beam is served for recording/reproduction on the recording layer.

Abstract: An ink jet recording head and an ink jet recording apparatus used this head, in which ejectors are arrayed in a two-dimensional matrix, and the necessary width of each of plural common ink branch paths is reduced, and the density arraying the ejectors is made to be high, are provided. The ink jet recording head is formed by layering and adhering a nozzle plate, a common ink path plate, an ink supplying plate, a connecting path plate, a pressure chamber plate, a vibration plate, and piezoelectric actuators. The ink supplying plate is made of a resin film whose stiffness is low. Since the ink supplying plate also works as air dampers for the plural common ink branch paths, even when the width of each of the plural common ink branch paths is made to narrow, necessary and sufficient acoustic capacitance to prevent crosstalk from generating between adjacent two ejectors can be obtained. With this structure, the density arraying the ejectors is able to be high.

Abstract: A roll fusing apparatus for effectively heating and fusing quality toner images on various different thicknesses of substrates is described. The apparatus includes a frame, a heated fuser roller having a first end and a second end respectively mounted to the frame; a pressure device mounted to the frame and forming a fusing nip with the heated fuser roller, the heated fuser roller and the pressure device being movable for receiving, heating and applying a nip force to toner images being moved through the fusing nip on various different thicknesses of substrates; a rotatable cam providing a varying amount of pressure to the pressure device in response to the thickness of the substrate being fed into the nip of the fusing apparatus; a drive shaft for rotating the cam; and a controller for selectively moving the cam in response to the thickness of the substrate.

Abstract: What is presented is a method for rendering gray half-toned images from a received image wherein the received image is bitmap data including at least a plurality of gray-scale pixel tiles that define the image. The method includes the steps of first receiving a gray image so as to extract pixel tile information of the received image. The next step is matching loosely the pixel tile information with at least one of a plurality of templates, wherein the match is determined from looseness intervals between the templates and the pixel tile information. Then, outputting a portion of enhanced pixel tile information wherein the enhanced pixel tile information is formed from data associated with a matching template. The output signals are such that a preferred thresholding of the image is performed.

Abstract: A driving method for an ink jet printing head includes a vibration application step and an ink refresh operation step. In the vibration application step, small vibrations, which do not cause ink drop discharge from nozzles of the ink jet printing head, are applied to pressure-generation chambers of the ink jet printing head corresponding to nozzles which are not executing ink drop discharge. In the ink refresh operation step, ink refresh operation, for removing the ink in the nozzles and replacing the ink with fresh ink, is periodically executed according to a refresh operation cycle which is appropriately set based on the temperature and/or humidity measured around the ink jet printing head. The ink refresh operation is executed by means of forcible ink drop discharge from the nozzles, ink suction by a pump, etc. For example, the refresh operation cycle is set shorter as the temperature around the ink jet printing head gets lower and as the humidity around the ink jet printing head gets lower.

Abstract: The method and system of the invention maintains the indication of the logical relationship of freeform digital ink annotations to objects in an electronic display even as the view changes. The invention maps the logical relationship of the freeform digital ink annotations to objects in the view based upon the layout relationships of the freeform digital ink annotations to the objects in the view. If the view changes, the invention maintains the layout relationship of the freeform digital ink annotations to the objects in the view based upon the mapping of the freeform digital ink annotations to the objects.

Abstract: The visibility of shared documents in a collaborative recommender system is managed by analyzing both the document's substance and user actions that are performed on the document. The document's substance includes both metadata and content. User actions include both user ratings and semantic actions. The visibility of the shared documents is updated when either a user action or an event occurs.

Abstract: Disclosed is an organic electroluminescent element comprising at least one pair of electrodes comprising an anode and a cathode, at least one of which having light permeability, and one or a plurality of organic compound layers held between the electrodes, wherein at least one organic compound layer contains at least one kind of charge-transferable polyether comprising a repetition unit containing at least one partial structure selected from the group consisting of the following general formulae (I-1) and (I-2).

Abstract: An eductor-spike nozzle device is provided for mounting through side walls of a fluidized bed jet mill to discharge a composite stream of high velocity fluid for receiving, entraining and delivering particles of material into a grinding chamber of a fluidized bed jet mill for particle to particle collisions.

Abstract: A process including:

Abstract: An organic light emitting device (OLED) has a thick (100 to 250 nanometers) porphyrin buffer layer between the anode and the luminescent region The thick porphyrin buffer layer in the OLED results in a small increase in device operating voltage, reduces the possibility of OLED shorting and can improve color purity in blue emitting OLEDs due to its significant optical absorption in the red range.

Abstract: An imager circuit includes an array of pixels, each pixel including a sensor (photodiode) connected to an input terminal of a comparator. The comparators of each pixel row have output terminals connected to a latch. A counter generates a sequence of digital values that are transmitted to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and to the latch of each row. The DAC generates a ramp voltage that is transmitted to a second input terminal of each pixel's comparator. The comparators of a selected pixel column are enabled to generate output signals when the ramp voltage equals each pixel's voltage, causing the associated latches to capture the current digital values. The comparators are formed such that each pixel row shares a cascode mirror circuit that detects differential currents in data line pairs connected to each pixel in that row.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a case-based method which specifies previously created documents as cases in a case base, and provides a generalized method for using these previous documents to create a new desired document. The new problem (i.e., the document you are trying to create) is expressed, using any/all case features (e.g., new problem constraints, creator intent, document-genre, etc.). A matching process is performed in order to retrieve documents similar to the desired document from the case base. A selection process chooses one or several of the best matching cases as starting points for creating the new document. The retrieved document(s) are then adapted to create the new desired document. This new document is optionally stored back into the case base as a new case.

Abstract: A fluidized bed jet mill has been provided for grinding particles of material. The fluidized bed jet mill includes plural nozzle devices mounted through side walls into a grinding chamber for discharging a composite stream of high velocity fluid that receives and delivers, for particle to particle collision, entrained particles of material to be ground within the grinding chamber. Each of the nozzle device includes a plural odd number of bell-like nozzle openings for each discharging an individual stream of high velocity fluid that together form the composite stream of high velocity fluid.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a system and method for specifying a custom document as a multi-criteria constraint optimization problem, and a method to automatically create the specified document using existing constraint optimization solving algorithms. The present method specifies the document, its content components, its layout requirements, and its desired aesthetic criteria are expressed as elements of a constraint optimization problem which when solved, results in an automated document layout for the set of content components that satisfies not only certain primitive content and layout constraints, but which also advantageously fulfills desired design properties and which provides a way to ensure that the generated document is well designed.