Abstract: Provided is a method for preparing an oligomer including: supplying a monomer stream and a solvent stream to a reactor to perform an oligomerization reaction to prepare a reaction product; supplying a discharge stream from the reactor including the reaction product to a separation device and supplying a lower discharge stream from the separation device to a settling tank; adding an organic flocculant to the settling tank to settle and remove a polymer and supplying the lower discharge stream from the separation device from which the polymer is removed to a high boiling point separation column; and removing a high boiling point material from the lower portion in the high boiling point separation column and supplying an upper discharge stream including an oligomer to a solvent separation column.

Abstract: A strain sensor may have a conductive elastic yarn including a first fiber having a predetermined length and a shape of a fiber yarn and a second fiber having electrical conductivity and a sheet shape. The strain sensor may have a pair of wiring members electrically connected to both ends of the conductive elastic yarn. The conductive elastic yarn, with the second fiber wrapped around the first fiber, is twisted in a coil shape.

Abstract: Provided is a method of producing an oligomer, the method including: supplying a monomer stream and a solvent stream to a reactor to perform an oligomerization reaction to produce a reaction product; supplying a discharge stream of the reactor to a separation device, and supplying an upper discharge stream of the separation device including an unreacted monomer to the reactor and supplying a lower discharge stream of the separation device to a settling tank; settling a polymer in the settling tank and removing the polymer, and supplying the lower discharge stream of the separation device from which the polymer is removed to a high-boiling point separation column; removing a high-boiling point material from a lower discharge stream of the high-boiling point separation column and supplying an upper discharge stream of the high-boiling point separation column including an oligomer to a solvent separation column; and separating a solvent and the oligomer in the solvent separation column.

Abstract: A radiation therapy and scanning system is provided. The radiation and therapy scanning system includes a therapy source adapted to deliver a predetermined dose of treatment radiation along an axis to a patient positioned in a scan field, a stationary scanning source producing an electron beam, and a detector positioned to partially circumscribe the scan field. The radiation therapy and scanning system also includes a target arranged concentric with the detector and located opposite the detector across the scan field, the target positioned at an angle ? to the axis such that when the electron beam impinges on the target the target transmits radiation through the scan field to the detector.

Abstract: A method and system of electronically inspecting baggage comprises generating scan data representative of a piece of baggage. At least one of a contour and a surface is extracted from the scan data, and the at least one of a contour and a surface is representative of an object within the baggage. An object database comprises data representative of shapes of known objects, and the at least one of a contour and surface is compared to the object database to identify an object match which is presented.

Abstract: An electron beam scanner includes a stationary source producing an electron beam and a detector positioned to partially circumscribe a scan field, the detector divided into a pair of detector rings arranged adjacent to one another and separated by a gap extending at least partially about a circumference of the detector. The electron beam scanner also includes a target arranged concentric with the detector and located opposite the detector across the scan field, the target having end portions circumferentially overlapping the detector and radially aligned with the gap between the detector rings, such that when the electron beam impinges on the target the target transmits radiation through the gap across the scan field to an associated section of the detector.

Abstract: A method and system of inspecting baggage to be transported from a location of origin to a destination is provided that includes generating scan data representative of a piece of baggage while the baggage is at the location of origin, and storing the scan data in a database. A rendered view representative of a content of the baggage is provided where the rendered views are based on the scan data retrieved from the database over a network. The rendered views are presented at a destination different from the origin.

Abstract: A radiation therapy and scanning system is provided. The radiation and therapy scanning system includes a therapy source adapted to deliver a predetermined dose of treatment radiation along an axis to a patient positioned in a scan field, a stationary scanning source producing an electron beam, and a detector positioned to partially circumscribe the scan field. The radiation therapy and scanning system also includes a target arranged concentric with the detector and located opposite the detector across the scan field, the target positioned at an angle ? to the axis such that when the electron beam impinges on the target the target transmits radiation through the scan field to the detector.

Abstract: An electron beam scanner includes a stationary source producing an electron beam and a detector positioned to partially circumscribe a scan field, the detector divided into a pair of detector rings arranged adjacent to one another and separated by a gap extending at least partially about a circumference of the detector. The electron beam scanner also includes a target arranged concentric with the detector and located opposite the detector across the scan field, the target having end portions circumferentially overlapping the detector and radially aligned with the gap between the detector rings, such that when the electron beam impinges on the target the target transmits radiation through the gap across the scan field to an associated section of the detector.

Abstract: A method and system of electronically inspecting baggage comprises generating scan data representative of a piece of baggage. At least one of a contour and a surface is extracted from the scan data, and the at least one of a contour and a surface is representative of an object within the baggage. An object database comprises data representative of shapes of known objects, and the at least one of a contour and surface is compared to the object database to identify an object match which is presented.

Abstract: A method and system of inspecting baggage to be transported from a location of origin to a destination is provided that includes generating scan data representative of a piece of baggage while the baggage is at the location of origin, and storing the scan data in a database. A rendered view representative of a content of the baggage is provided where the rendered views are based on the scan data retrieved from the database over a network. The rendered views are presented at a destination different from the origin.

Abstract: A new method and apparatus for visualization and manipulation of real 3-D objects are disclosed. This new approach utilizes compressed digital video taking advantage of modern video compression technology. The entire system consists of the image acquisition device, the viewing/manipulation program and the 3-D image database. The system first captures images of the object from all possible view angles as a sequence of images (a video). As neighboring images within the sequence will generally be similar, the sequence will be amenable to standard video compression techniques such as MPEG. The acquired video data (rendition of a real 3-D object) is then stored into a database for later access, for instance, over the Internet. Through specially developed software, the stored data can be manipulated while viewing the object. The user simply inputs—via a mouse, for instance—the view angle and the software automatically displays the appropriate frame within the video (stored data).

Abstract: A new dequantization scheme for DCT-based transform coding, such as JPEG, MPEG and H.26x, is disclosed. The new approach drastically reduces blocking artifacts without smoothing the decoded image. Most discrete cosine transform (DCT) based video coding suffers from blocking artifacts where boundaries of 8×8 DCT blocks become visible on decoded images. The blocking artifacts become more prominent as the bit rate is lowered. In the present invention, a new dequantization technique is disclosed for discrete cosine transform (DCT) based encoding to sharply reduce the blocking artifacts. The dequantization scheme of the present invention sharply reduces blocking artifacts in decoded images through regularization. The performance comparison with the standard JPEG as well as MPEG and H.26x decoding shows visual improvements as well as numerical improvements in terms of the peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the blockiness measure (BM) to be defined.

Abstract: A method for producing a visual rhythm in a video system, includes the steps of: a) sampling a portion of pixels contained at each of frames; and b) producing the visual rhythm summarizing changes of video contents by using the result of the sampling.

Abstract: A new method and apparatus for visualization and manipulation of real 3-D objects are disclosed. This new approach utilizes compressed digital video taking advantage of modern video compression technology. The entire system consists of the image acquisition device, the viewing/manipulation program and the 3-D image database. The system first captures images of the object from all possible view angles as a sequence of images (a video). As neighboring images within the sequence will generally be similar, the sequence will be amenable to standard video compression techniques such as MPEG. The acquired video data (rendition of a real 3-D object) is then stored into a database for later access, for instance, over the Internet.

Abstract: The golf shoes of the invention comprise a level-measuring device comprising a transparent square fixed box installed inside the heel of the golf shoes, a ball having a round shape and made of opaque material wherein the ball rolls freely inside of the fixed box according to the movement of the shoes; first and second infrared emitting diodes which emit infrared light signals inside the fixed box where ball rolls; front, back, right, and left photosensors, which each output a signal after perceiving infrared light signal from the diodes; a microprocessor, which outputs a signal indicating the state of the golf shoes according to the signal outputted from the photosensors; a display device which shows the current state of shoes according to the signal for state of shoes outputted from microprocessor; a battery which supplies power to the first and second infrared emitting diodes and microprocessor; and an on-off switch.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for tagging, indexing, searching, retrieving, manipulating, and editing video images on a wide area network such as the Internet. A first set of methods is provided for enabling users to add bookmarks to multimedia files, such as movies, and audio files, such as music. The multimedia bookmark facilitates the searching of portions or segments of multimedia files, particularly when used in conjunction with a search engine. Additional methods are provided that reformat a video image for use on a variety of devices that have a wide range of resolutions by selecting some material (in the case of smaller resolutions) or more material (in the case of larger resolutions) from the same multimedia file. Still more methods are provided for interrogating images that contain textual information (in graphical form) so that the text may be copied to a tag or bookmark that can itself be indexed and searched to facilitate later retrieval via a search engine.