What is claimed is:
1. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing ingots of low-oxygen copper, comprising:
a melting furnace in which combustion may be performed in a reducing atmosphere so as to produce molten copper;
a soaking furnace connected to receive molten copper supplied from the melting furnace and adapted to maintain a predetermined temperature of the molten copper;
a casting trough connected to receive molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace and configured to seal the molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, and configured for transferring the molten copper to a turn-dish;
a degasser provided in the casting trough and adapted for dehydrogenating the molten copper passing through the casting trough;
a continuous casting machine connected and adapted for continuously producing cast copper from the molten copper supplied from the turn-dish; and
a cutter positioned for cutting the cast copper into a predetermined length.
2. An apparatus for manufacturing ingots of low-oxygen copper, according to claim 1, wherein the degasser comprises a stirrer.
3. An apparatus for manufacturing ingots of low-oxygen copper, according to claim 2, wherein the stirrer comprises dikes positioned to cause a meandering the flow of the molten copper passing through the casting trough.
4. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing a low-oxygen copper wire, comprising:
a melting furnace in which combustion may be performed in a reducing atmosphere so as to produce molten copper;
a soaking furnace connected to receive molten copper supplied from the melting furnace and adapted to maintain a predetermined temperature of the molten copper;
a casting trough connected to receive molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace and configured to seal the molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, and configured for transferring the molten copper to a turn-dish;
a degasser provided in the casting trough and adapted for dehydrogenating the molten copper passing through the casting trough;
a continuous casting machine, including a belt caster, connected and adapted for continuously producing cast copper from the molten copper supplied from the turn-dish; and
a rolling machine positioned for rolling the cast copper so as to produce the low-oxygen copper wire.
5. An apparatus for manufacturing a low-oxygen copper wire, according to claim 4, wherein the degasser comprises a stirrer.
6. An apparatus for manufacturing a low-oxygen copper wire, according to claim 5, wherein the stirrer comprises dikes positioned for causing a meandering the flow of the molten copper passing through the casting trough.
7. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing ingots of low-oxygen copper, comprising:
a melting furnace in which combustion may be performed in a reducing atmosphere so as to produce molten copper;
a soaking furnace connected to receive molten copper supplied from the melting furnace and adapted to maintain a predetermined temperature of the molten copper;
a casting trough connected to receive molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace and configured to seal the molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, and configured for transferring the molten copper to a turn-dish;
a degasser provided in the casting trough and adapted for dehydrogenating the molten copper passing through the casting trough;
an adder positioned for adding silver to the dehydrogenated molten copper;
a continuous casting machine, including a belt caster, connected and adapted for continuously producing cast copper from the molten copper supplied from the turn-dish; and
a rolling machine positioned for rolling the cast copper so as to produce the low-oxygen copper wire.
8. An apparatus for manufacturing a wire composed of a low-oxygen copper alloy, according to claim 7, wherein the degasser comprises a stirrer.
9. An apparatus for manufacturing a wire composed of a low-oxygen copper alloy, according to claim 8, wherein the stirrer comprises dikes positioned for causing a meandering the flow of the molten copper passing through the casting trough.
10. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing ingots of low-oxygen copper, comprising:
a melting furnace in which combustion may be performed in a reducing atmosphere so as to produce molten copper;
a soaking furnace connected to receive molten copper supplied from the melting furnace and adapted to maintain a predetermined temperature of the molten copper;
a casting trough connected to receive molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace and configured to seal the molten copper supplied from the soaking furnace in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, and configured for transferring the molten copper to a turn-dish;
a degasser provided in the casting trough and adapted for dehydrogenating the molten copper passing through the casting trough;
an adder positioned for adding phosphorus to the dehydrogenated molten copper;
a continuous casting machine, including a belt caster, connected and adapted for continuously producing base cast copper from the molten copper supplied from the turn-dish; and
a rolling machine positioned for rolling the base cast copper so as to produce the low-oxygen copper wire.
11. An apparatus for manufacturing a base low-oxygen copper material, according to claim 10, wherein the degasser is a stirrer.
12. An apparatus for manufacturing a base low-oxygen copper material, according to claim 11, wherein the stirrer comprises dikes positioned to cause a meandering the flow of the molten copper passing through the casting trough.
13. An apparatus for manufacturing a base low-oxygen copper material, according to claim 12, further comprising a cutter positioned to cut the base low-oxygen copper material to a predetermined length.
14. An apparatus for manufacturing a base low-oxygen copper material, according to claim 13, further comprising a washing positioned and adapted to wash the base low-oxygen copper material having a predetermined length.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method comprising:
continuously monitoring an audio stream associated with a gesture input stream;
detecting a speech event in the audio stream;
identifying a temporal window associated with a time of the speech event;
analyzing, via a processor, data from the gesture input stream within the temporal window to identify a gesture event; and
processing the speech event and the gesture event to produce a multimodal command.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein a gesture in the gesture input stream is directed to a display, but is remote from the display.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the data from the gesture input stream further comprises calculating an average of gesture coordinates within the temporal window.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the speech event and the gesture event further comprises:
identifying a speech command from the speech event;
identifying parameters from the gesture event; and
applying the parameters to the speech command.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein a gesture filtering module focuses the temporal window based on timing of specific words in the speech event.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the multimodal command.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of a length and a position of the temporal window is based on a type of the speech event.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the speech event is detected in the audio stream without an explicit user activation via one of a button press and a touch gesture.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture input stream comprises input from at least one of a motion detector, a motion capture system, a camera, and an infrared camera.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio stream comprises input from at least one of a microphone and an array of microphones.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the temporal window comprises modifying the temporal window based on one of the gesture event and any other data to yield a modified temporal window.
12. A system comprising:
a processor;
a memory having stored therein instructions for controlling the processor to perform steps comprising:
monitoring an audio stream associated with a gesture input stream;
detecting a speech event in the audio stream;
identifying a temporal window associated with a time of the speech event;
analyzing, via a processor, data from the gesture input stream within the temporal window to identify a gesture event; and
processing the speech event and the gesture event to produce a multimodal command.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein a gesture in the gesture input stream is directed to a display, but is remote from the display.
14. The system of claim 12, wherein analyzing the data from the gesture input stream further comprises calculating an average of gesture coordinates within the temporal window.
15. The system of claim 12, wherein processing the speech event and the gesture event further comprises:
identifying a speech command from the speech event;
identifying parameters from the gesture event; and
applying the parameters to the speech command.
16. The system of claim 1, wherein a gesture filtering module focuses the temporal window based on timing of specific words in the speech event.
17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:
continuously monitoring an audio stream associated with a gesture input stream;
detecting a speech event in the audio stream;
identifying a temporal window associated with a time of the speech event;
analyzing, via a processor, data from the gesture input stream within the temporal window to identify a gesture event; and
processing the speech event and the gesture event to produce a multimodal command.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the speech event is detected in the audio stream without an explicit user activation via one of a button press and a touch gesture.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the gesture input stream comprises input from at least one of a motion detector, a motion capture system, a camera, and an infrared camera.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the audio stream comprises input from at least one of a microphone and an array of microphones.