Abstract: An end-stop control valve can progressively add end-of-stroke damping resistance to complement the damping force provided by a main piston in a damper tube. The end-stop control valve may include a piston that is secured on a piston rod and selectively engages a catch piston, both of which are longitudinally movable within the damper tube. As the piston approaches the catch piston, an annular pocket of hydraulic fluid is created longitudinally and radially between the piston and the catch piston. As the piston continues to approach the catch piston, a cross-sectional area through which hydraulic fluid exits the pocket decreases, thereby gradually increasing the resistance of the end-stop control valve. In addition, a spring disc secured on the piston rod may contact a valve seat on the catch piston and provide resistance by elastically deforming in a longitudinal direction before the contact surfaces of the piston and catch piston engage.

Abstract: The present invention facilitates efficient and effective image processing. A network can comprise: a first system configured to perform a first portion of lighting calculations for an image and combing results of the first portion of lighting calculations for the image with results of a second portion of lighting calculations; and a second system configured to perform the second portion of lighting calculations and forward the results of the second portion of the lighting calculations to the first system. The first and second portion of lighting calculations can be associated with indirect lighting calculations and direct lighting calculations respectively. The first system can be a client in a local location and the second system can be a server in a remote location (e.g., a cloud computing environment). The first system and second system can be in a cloud and a video is transmitted to a local system.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to real time monitoring of usage of multiple pieces of exercise equipment and providing exercise based metric data based thereon to devices for aggregation, display or other processing thereof. In particular, the disclosed embodiments facilitate collection of exercise based metric data from various pieces of exercise equipment, such as stationary bikes, treadmills, and the like, in real time, i.e. as the equipment is utilized by an exercising user, combine the collected data in a form suitable for use by various interested devices and broadcast or otherwise disseminate the combined data to the various devices wherein the various devices may access the broadcasted combined data to access the usage metric data from any one or more of the pieces of exercise equipment from which it was collected for subsequent aggregation, display and/or further processing.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to real time monitoring of usage of multiple pieces of exercise equipment and providing exercise based metric data based thereon to devices for aggregation, display or other processing thereof. In particular, the disclosed embodiments facilitate collection of exercise based metric data from various pieces of exercise equipment, such as stationary bikes, treadmills, and the like, in real time, i.e. as the equipment is utilized by an exercising user, combine the collected data in a form suitable for use by various interested devices and broadcast or otherwise disseminate the combined data to the various devices wherein the various devices may access the broadcasted combined data to access the usage metric data from any one or more of the pieces of exercise equipment from which it was collected for subsequent aggregation, display and/or further processing.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to real time monitoring of usage of multiple pieces of exercise equipment and providing exercise based metric data based thereon to devices for aggregation, display or other processing thereof. In particular, the disclosed embodiments facilitate collection of exercise based metric data from various pieces of exercise equipment, such as stationary bikes, treadmills, and the like, in real time, i.e. as the equipment is utilized by an exercising user, combine the collected data in a form suitable for use by various interested devices and broadcast or otherwise disseminate the combined data to the various devices wherein the various devices may access the broadcasted combined data to access the usage metric data from any one or more of the pieces of exercise equipment from which it was collected for subsequent aggregation, display and/or further processing.

Abstract: There is disclosed a test apparatus for performing testing with a read/write head and method of testing with a test apparatus. The test apparatus includes a head load mechanism for receiving and positioning the read/write head during testing and a multi-channel preamplifier arranged to interface plural channels to a measurement system. A first channel of the multi-channel preamplifier has a connector for connecting to the read/write head. One or more other channels of the multi-channel preamplifier is connected to or has a connector for connecting to another device for interfacing that device to the measurement system.