A plurality of transceivers frequently share a common communication medium or radio frequency channel. A broadcast channel can support only a limited number of transceivers. At some point, the shared channel will become so busy that additional transceivers will divide up more of an already inadequate bandwidth. To reduce the traffic, a broadcast channel is split into separate segments. A segment interface apparatus is used to couple two broadcast segments together. A hierarchical address is empl...

A method for achieving alignment between first objects and second objects. The method is comprised of the following steps: (a) positioning the second objects slightly above the first objects; (b) imaging both the first and second objects by using a sensor camera which generates an output signal and which is located directly thereabove; (c) moving the first and second objects relative to each other within the field of view of the sensor camera; (d) constructing a relationship curve with respect t...

Apparatus facilitates the transfer of material from the discharge zone of one mine conveyor onto another conveyor extending perpendicularly to the first conveyor. The transfer apparatus can take the form of a rotatably driven disc disposed beneath the elevated discharge zone of the first conveyor so that the material falls onto the disc. The disc extends over the other conveyor. A scraper lies across the disc to scrape and guide the material into the other lower conveyor. Alternatively, the disc...

The plug in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,995 is improved as to the contact carrier by providing slots in an orientation so that thermocouple leads can be laterally inserted before hanging over ridges for contact-making with annular contacts of a socket member in the holder. The orientation of the slots permits lateral placement of the thermocouple leads through the ridges, but the leads will hang over them in a location azimuthally offset from the slot through the respective ridge.

The present invention discloses a device for cleaning the area between toes of a user including a base device forming sufficient top and bottom horizontal areas capable of being releasably secured by one foot of the user; an elongated flexible cord line device having a lower end and an upper end whereby the lower end is adapted to be attached to the base device and the upper end is adapted to be held by a hand of a user; and the elongated flexible cord line device is such that it enters the area...

A controller design for switching between m linear multivariable controllers each of whom stabilizes a linear plant has been presented. A Youla-Kucera factorization was exploited in the interest of obtaining a closed-loop system that is exponentially stable for any switching signal .sigma.(t) in the absence of plant model uncertainty. Robustness to practical model uncertainty was also considered and lower and upper bounds on the tolerable magnitude of unstructured additive plant uncertainty were...

In a method, data is partitioned into partitions, which are divided into levels. The levels are ordered by creation times of the levels. A request is received at a current partition, which includes a key that identifies a field in a record and a value for the key. A determination is made whether the value exists in the field in the current partition. If the determination is false, a message is sent from the current partition to a next-older partition, and the message instructs the next-older par...

The method applies to objects comprising a memory in which there is a mathematical mapping and at least one key. It is a method which comprises the following steps: calculation, in a first object, of the image of a number via a mapping which is the image via the mapping contained in memory of the key contained in memory, transmission, by this object, of a frame containing an order, the number and its image, reception by each of the other objects, calculation, in each other object, of the image o...

A control component with a "D" shaped shaft is to be fitted with a control knob that was designed to fit onto a "dog-bone" shaped shaft. A resilient adapter in the form of a tubular sleeve has a special bore to fit on the shaft and a special configuration to fit into the bore of the knob so as to prevent relative rotational movement therebetween.

To form a joint between members, a projection of at least one member is introduced into a bore of another member and is held therein by particulate material, which has been filled into the space provided between the interextending portions of the members to be joined and has entered recesses provided in the mutually confronting surfaces of the interextending portions.