Abstract: A direct type backlight unit includes a metal housing having a base, at least one metal supporting pin and a buffer element. The metal supporting pin is formed integrally on the base and protrudes upwardly therefrom for supporting an optical film disposed upon the backlight unit, and the buffer element is disposed between the metal supporting pin and the optical film so as to prevent the metal supporting pin from damaging the optical film.

Abstract: An optical spectrum analyzer is implemented with a detector combined with a tunable filter mounted on a stage capable of 360-degree rotation at a constant velocity. Because of the constant rate of angular change, different portions of the input spectrum are detected at each increment of time as a function of filter position, which can be easily measured with an encoder for synchronization purposes. The unidirectional motion of the mirror permits operation at very high speeds with great mechanical reliability. The same improvements may be obtained using a diffraction grating or a prism, in which case the detector or an intervening mirror may be rotated instead of the grating or prism.

Abstract: A wavelength beam splitter (WBS) is combined with a conventional tunable filter to sequentially select different channels in a multi-channel communication system. The WBS is characterized by a periodic spectral response with period equal to the channel spacing of the ITU grid. Preferably, the WBS consists of an optical cavity with an optical path length that produces a free-spectral range substantially equal to the channel spacing of the ITU grid. The WBS is used to separate the signal in each channel passband from the noise in the corresponding channel stopband. This provides a signal and a noise output for each channel. A tunable filter is used to scan the channels of the ITU grid sequentially and provide output signals for a single channel at a time. Therefore, a much smaller frequency bandwidth needs to be measured at a time and a less expensive detector may be used.

Abstract: An exemplary optical hybrid includes a 50/50 un-polarized beam splitter, a folding prism, a beam shifter, a spacer and a phase shifter such that from an input S-beam (signal) and an L-beam (reference), four outputs, S+L, S?L, S+jL, S?jL, are produced. The phase difference of S and L at the four output ports is phi_0, phi_0+90-degrees, phi_0+180-degree, phi_0+270-degree, where the phase difference between S and L at the S+L port is an arbitrary number phi_0 and the phase difference between S and L at the other output ports, S?L, S+jL, S?jL, is 90, 180 and 270, respectively, shifted from phi_0.

Abstract: The present invention provides a biologically pure culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain YA02032 or YA03083, which culture has a characteristic nature capable of producing glutathione and the precursor thereof, ?-glutamylcysteine. A composition comprising the culture and a process for the production of glutathione and/or the precursor thereof, ?-glutamylcysteine, are also provided.

Abstract: An interferometer includes a means for splitting, at a splitting location, an input light beam into a first beam and a second beam; and means for recombining, at a recombination location, the first beam and the second beam. The interferometer is designed such that the first beam will travel a first optical path length (OPL) from the splitting location to the recombination location, and the second beam will travel a second OPL from the splitting location to the recombination location and such that when the input light beam has been modulated at a data rate comprising a time interval, then the difference in optical path lengths between the first OPL and the second OPL is about equal to the time interval multiplied by the speed of light.

Abstract: A computer network system. The computer network system includes a server with an operating system and a management system for controlling the server, and a computer connected to the operating system of the server and the management system of the server. The computer is utilized to transmit a signal to the management system of the server according to a status of the operating system of the server providing a network service.

Abstract: A direct type backlight unit includes a metal housing having a base, at least one metal supporting pin and a buffer element. The metal supporting pin is formed integrally on the base and protrudes upwardly therefrom for supporting an optical film disposed upon the backlight unit, and the buffer element is disposed between the metal supporting pin and the optical film so as to prevent the metal supporting pin from damaging the optical film.

Abstract: Beam splitter designs for interferometers provide a phase difference between the two resulting interference beams that are independent of the polarization status of the incident beam. The polarization independent phase coating is achieved by making the internal beam splitting coating of an unpolarized beam splitter to be symmetrical. A symmetrical coating will produce the phase matching condition, ?SR??SR?=?PR??PR?=0.

Abstract: An interferometer includes a means for splitting, at a splitting location, an input light beam into a first beam and a second beam; and means for recombining, at a recombination location, the first beam and the second beam.

Abstract: A direct type backlight unit includes a metal housing having a base, at least one metal supporting pin and a buffer element. The metal supporting pin is formed integrally on the base and protrudes upwardly therefrom for supporting an optical film disposed upon the backlight unit, and the buffer element is disposed between the metal supporting pin and the optical film so as to prevent the metal supporting pin from damaging the optical film.

Abstract: An optical cavity is combined with a MUX or a de-MUX device having substantially the same free-spectral range in order to enhance the bandwidth of the device. The optical cavity can be tuned to shift the frequencies of maximum insertion loss to match the center frequency of each channel. The reflectivities of the reflective surfaces of the cavity are judiciously selected to produce the insertion-loss spectrum needed to optimize the desired result. Multiple cavities can be used in series to refine the shape of the pass-band spectrum. A frequency window is used to fine tune the free-spectral range of the cavity and to shift the peaks of its insertion-loss spectrum to the desired frequencies. Inner and outer cavity surfaces are oriented to eliminate interference from secondary reflections.

Abstract: An opening and closing device for a capless retractable marker pen is disclosed. The opening and closing device is based on a two-stage design for achieving the purpose of protracting and retracting a writing tip. The opening and closing device for the capless retractable marker pen of the present invention is manufactured easily and assembled conveniently, so as to greatly increase the processing speed and yield.

Abstract: Optical interferometers with variable dispersion are shown. These interferometers are useful as optical interleavers and through the control of their design, are made to have negative and near-zero dispersion. The N-type interleaver has a negative dispersion slope near the center of the pass band. The Z-type interleaver has a dispersion that is close to zero within the pass band. These interleavers can be arranged in various systems to produce low dispersion optical networks. The non-linear phase etalons in the N- and Z-type interleavers taught herein contribute to the device dispersion. The N-Type interleaver includes a linear cavity length that is 1.5 times that of a non-linear cavity. The Z-type interleaver includes two non-linear cavities that are out of phase with each other such that the net dispersion is close to zero.

Abstract: A tunable filter includes a polarizing beam splitter and a half-wave plate that produce two equally polarized beams from an arbitrarily polarized input light. The polarized beams are directed toward a tunable component that consists of an optical substrate coated with a filter and a reflective element on its back and front surface, respectively. The pass and stop beams emerging from the tunable component are retro-reflected by roof structures and passed again through the filter. As a result of this combination of components, the filter's performance is not dependent on polarization and the filter's output channels are not shifted or deviated by tuning.

Abstract: A panel light source device comprises light sources, a light guide, and a reflector. The light guide defines a bottom surface and a top surface, and comprises grooves disposed on the bottom surface for receiving the light sources and pairs of first inclined surfaces disposed on the top surface and corresponding to the groove. The grooves and the first inclined surfaces cooperate with each other to transmit the light from the light source into the light guide. The reflector is disposed on the bottom surface of the light guide and covers the light source.

Abstract: A magnetic recording system containing magnetic recording media with separate data and servo magnetic layers is disclosed. A servo magnetic layer resides usually below the data layer and has higher coercivity than that of the data layer. Interference between the data and servo signals is minimized by recording the servo patterns perpendicular or transverse direction with respect to the orientation of data bits. In addition, servo patterns are selected so that no interference with the data is generated by the servo pattern when the reader is in the middle of data tracks. Tracking error signals are approximately linear with track misregistration around the middle of data tracks. Finally, interference between the data and servo signals is further reduced by electronic processing. Continuous servo signals permit increased track densities with a single actuator and very high track densities with dual microactuator-actuator system.

Abstract: Beam splitter designs for interferometers provide a phase difference between the two resulting interference beams that are independent of the polarization status of the incident beam. The polarization independent phase coating is achieved by making the internal beam splitting coating of an unpolarized beam splitter to be symmetrical. A symmetrical coating will produce the phase matching condition, &PSgr;SR−&PSgr;SR′=&PSgr;PR−&PSgr;PR′=0.

Abstract: A parallel glass plate mounted on a rotating fixture is used to precisely control the optical path length of a light beam. The glass plate refracts the incident optical signal to increase the length of its optical path as a function of the angle of incidence. The device can easily achieve a precision in the order of nanometers and is particularly suitable to fine tune the cavity length of a resonator and the optical path difference of an interferometer. Accordingly, the preferred application of the invention is in an interferometric interleaver. The glass plate can also be coated with a partially reflective coating to attenuate the optical signal passing therethrough. By judiciously selecting the refractive index, the thermal coefficient of refraction, and the coefficient of thermal expansion of the glass, thermal effects may be virtually eliminated.

Abstract: There is disclosed an automatic white-balance correction method for digital camera, which divides a captured picture into multiple sampled regions for performing a white-balance correction. The image data of the captured picture is transformed form RGB format to YCrCb format. Then, the mean values of Y, Cr, and Cb are calculated for each sampled region based on the multiple sampled regions. Finally, Cr and Cb are used as two coordinate axes to define four quadrants, and the values of Cr and Cb of each sampled region are used to determine a corresponding quadrant for each sampled region, thereby determining a correction direction based on the number of sampled regions in each quadrant.