Abstract: An emergency arrest device for a zip line is disclosed. The device uses a rope wound around the zip line, e.g., in a double helix, as the “core reactor” that provides stopping force. The device receives the ends of the wound rope and controls the position of the rope and tension within the rope to create and modulate the stopping force. Specifically, the device may comprise a front plate, a rear plate assembly, connecting members connecting the front plate and the rear plate assembly, and a movable carriage. The rear plate assembly includes a first receiving structure adapted to receive and secure one end of the rope. The moveable carriage is mounted within the emergency arrest device between the front plate and the rear plate assembly and carries a second receiving structure adapted to receive and secure the other end of the rope.

Abstract: An emergency arrest device for a zip line is disclosed. The device uses a rope wound around the zip line, e.g., in a double helix, as the “core reactor” that provides stopping force. The device receives the ends of the wound rope and controls the position of the rope and tension within the rope to create and modulate the stopping force. Specifically, the device may comprise a front plate, a rear plate assembly, connecting members connecting the front plate and the rear plate assembly, and a movable carriage. The rear plate assembly includes a first receiving structure adapted to receive and secure one end of the rope. The moveable carriage is mounted within the emergency arrest device between the front plate and the rear plate assembly and carries a second receiving structure adapted to receive and secure the other end of the rope.

Abstract: Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for automated software testing, such as by verifying operations are complete based on user interface and/or network traffic indications, for instance. Some embodiments are particularly directed to utilizing a network sniffer to detect specific network traffic to verify completion of network requests and/or responses associated with an operation included in a workflow for performance by a software under test (SUT). In many embodiments, the detection of specific network traffic may be used to accurately time operation durations and/or efficiently perform workflows to evaluate the SUT.

Abstract: Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for automated software testing, such as by verifying operations are complete based on user interface and/or network traffic indications, for instance. Some embodiments are particularly directed to utilizing a network sniffer to detect specific network traffic to verify completion of network requests and/or responses associated with an operation included in a workflow for performance by a software under test (SUT). In many embodiments, the detection of specific network traffic may be used to accurately time operation durations and/or efficiently perform workflows to evaluate the SUT.

Abstract: The present invention relates to low or zero-tack composite materials such as pre-pregs and their use in automated manufacturing, particularly robotic pick and place. The present invention further relates to an automated process for preparing an article, particularly a molded article, from a fiber-reinforced composition material. The molded articles prepared by the process described herein are particularly suitable as components for transport applications, and particularly the automotive industry. The automotive components prepared by the present invention are particularly suitable as mid- or high-volume automotive parts, in which cost and speed of production are paramount. The present invention provides a process in which the cutting and handling of pre-preg materials is greatly simplified, providing advantages of efficiency and economy.

Abstract: An emergency arrest device for a zip line is disclosed. The emergency arrest device is designed to tension and control a slide-and-grip knot, such as a Prusik knot, that is tied on the zip line. The device includes a mirror-image set of sidewalls, a front endwall connected between the pair of sidewalls at a front end of the device, and a rear endwall connected at a rear end of the device. The front and rear endwalls have openings sized to permit passage of the zip line therethrough. A tail fixation assembly including a clamp is mounted in the rear of the device. A knot-body control assembly is mounted in the front of the device. The knot-body control assembly includes arms that are resiliently biased to push the body of the slide-and-grip knot rearwardly when the device is impacted.

Abstract: An emergency arrest device for a zip line is disclosed. The emergency arrest device is designed to tension and control a slide-and-grip knot, such as a Prusik knot, that is tied on the zip line. The device includes a mirror-image set of sidewalls, a front endwall connected between the pair of sidewalls at a front end of the device, and a rear endwall connected at a rear end of the device. The front and rear endwalls have openings sized to permit passage of the zip line therethrough. A tail fixation assembly including a clamp is mounted in the rear of the device. A knot-body control assembly is mounted in the front of the device. The knot-body control assembly includes arms that are resiliently biased to push the body of the slide-and-grip knot rearwardly when the device is impacted.

Abstract: A top-load trolley with speed control system is disclosed. The trolley has a housing of metal plates with a series of fixed and movable parts mounted between. A number of rollers are moveably mounted in-line within the housing such that they may ride atop of a zip line and support the weight of the trolley and a passenger. An additional roller is placed in opposition to the load-bearing rollers, arranged to contact the zip line along its underside. Thus, at least three rollers may be configured to produce an adjustable amount of friction on the zip line, thereby providing a more controlled speed down a zip line course. Additionally, an emergency brake mechanism that may be used in conjunction with the top-load trolley with speed control system is disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention relates to low or zero-tack composite materials such as pre-pregs and their use in automated manufacturing, particularly robotic pick and place. The present invention further relates to an automated process for preparing an article, particularly a moulded article, from a fibre-reinforced composition material. The moulded articles prepared by the process described herein are particularly suitable as components for transport applications, and particularly the automotive industry. The automotive components prepared by the present invention are particularly suitable as mid- or high-volume automotive parts, in which cost and speed of production are paramount. The present invention provides a process in which the cutting and handling of pre-preg materials is greatly simplified, providing advantages of efficiency and economy.

Abstract: Block matching is a robust and simple method of motion estimation for television pictures. One important parameter in block matching is the block size. Large blocks give more reliable motion estimation than small blocks, particularly in the presence of noise on the input picture, but they produce a coarser motion vector field. However, if the motion estimation is being used for motion compensated interpolation, for example the upconversion between 50 and 100 Hz display rates, the effects on picture quality of wrong vectors for whole blocks, and also of vectors that do not correctly follow the boundaries of moving objects, can be severe. According to the invention, large block (LB) matching is combined with the performance of more localized motion vectors to get pixel motion vectors. For any pixel, the motion vector will be one of four possibilities; the vector calculated for the block containing the pixel and the vectors (V1, V2, V3, V4) of the nearest blocks horizontally, vertically and diagonally.

Abstract: Block matching is well known as a robust and intuitively simple method of motion estimation for television pictures. However, when the purpose of the motion estimation is to provide accurate interpolation between images, conventional block matching suffers from the problem that the blocks are situated in the original fields rather than in the fields to be interpolated, leading to possible errors in the calculated motion field. The invention uses two-sided block matching. The search window is shared between the two input fields so that the candidate motion vectors related to be candidate pixel blocks all pass through the same points in the field to be interpolated. Thus, the "current block" becomes a notional area in the field to be interpolated, and each of the two search windows extends to half the maximum motion vector in each direction. Each motion vector points forward to the forward field by half its value and backward to the backward field by half its value.

Abstract: Motion vectors resulting from block matching are corrected for periodic structures by taking a more reliable vector from an edge of a moving object containing the periodic structure. This is done by calculating and comparing different error combinations to identify periodic structures and replacing a current motion vector with one of an adjacent pixel block either from the block to the left or from the block above, which ever yields the smaller error in the current block, or by taking a combination (e.g., mean) of both vectors. Advantageously, artifacts such as phase reversal of information in interpolated fields due to the presence of an erroneous vector in a periodic structure are reduced and very little additional processing is required after the block matching itself.

Abstract: An appearance of a double image around moving objects may be reduced or removed by generating motion compensated 100 Hz fields with the objects in correct positions. When, however, the results of this technique are applied to motion compensated upconversion, objects or parts of the picture which fall outside the range of measurable velocities appear on the upconverted display with a very strong double image, resulting from the display of information in the wrong temporal position generated by uncompensated or `fallback processing`. The subjective strength of the double image may be reduced by low pass filtering in a horizontal direction the components in the new fields of the upconverted signal which cause this double image.

Abstract: When film is transmitted by television, the same frame of film is used to generate both interlace television fields. This results in the information carried by the second field being temporally displaced from the original by 20 ms. This displacement gives rise to judder and double image artifacts in the received image. To overcome these defects the intermediate fields are generated from the original film frames by double sided motion compensated interpolation wherein the motion information is calculated using double sided block matching. The invention may be applied either in a television receiver or video signal decoder or in the television studio before the television signal is transmitted.

Abstract: Motion compensated video output signal (SO) produced by a soft switching or "fading" (SSW) between the a motion compensated interpolation (MCI) and a "fallback" mode (FFI) (e.g., intra-field), controlled by a "measure of confidence" (CF) in the reliability of the estimated motion vector. The confidence measure includes the following two components, namely: (i) a "basic confidence measure" (e.g., a block based, minimum motion estimation error (BME) and (ii) a measure based on the motion velocity or "speed" of movement of the motion vector or its horizontal (MVX) and vertical components (MVY).

Abstract: A method for signal equalization/ghost cancellation with an equalizing filter includes synthesizing a first equalizing filter function (LMS 1) with N (an integer) taps and associated coefficients. The respective coefficients are adjusted to minimize the error between a received reference signal output by the synthesized equalizing filter function and a non-distorted reference signal. The adjusted coefficients are evaluated to determine P (an integer) groups of M (an integer) taps and associated coefficients which contribute to said synthesized equalizing filter function according to a predetermined criterion and wherein P times M is less than N. A second equalizing filter function is synthesized corresponding to the first equalizing filter function with coefficients other than the P groups of M coefficients set to zero, and the P groups to M coefficients are adjusted to minimize the error.

Abstract: A method of measuring the noise in an active video image. During a given processing period, for each pixel of a video image considered to be stationary, the difference f.sub.d between the video signal corresponding to this pixel and the video signal corresponding t the pixel at the same spatial position in a preceding image is calculated. The square of the absolute value of the difference is calculated so as to obtain a value .vertline.f.sub.d .vertline..sup.2, and the value .vertline.f.sub.d .vertline..sup.2 is added to previously obtained values so as to form a sum value .SIGMA..vertline.f.sub.d .vertline..sup.2. The above operations are repeated until the number of pixels processed is equal to a given threshold value N.sub.0, or until the end of the processing period. At the end of the processing period, if the number of pixels processed is equal to the threshold value, the value .SIGMA..vertline.f.sub.d .vertline..sup.2 is used to determine a reference point giving a new noise-reduction coefficient k.sub.

Abstract: A system to facilitate mixing and recording video signals of different standards, e.g., in digital format via a digital video recorder, is disclosed. A first video signal in progressive scan format is converted to a standard format (e.g., line interlaced) prior to recording. A standard second video signal (e.g., line interlaced) is predistorted without format conversion prior to recording with the first signal to reduce artifacts associated with post-processing after recording. The predistortion involves vertically displacing selected picture elements. Before being displayed, a video output signal from the recorder is converted to the scan format of the first video signal.