Author: claimsbot

1. A method for measuring blood oxygen saturation comprising:
emitting light from at least one light source;
detecting a plurality of light spectrums having time-varying components from the light with at least one detector subsequent to the light being scattered by tissue, the plurality of light spectrums including a first light spectrum having a wavelength between 725 and 745 nanometers and a second light spectrum having a wavelength between 880 and 940 nanometers; and
calculating a blood oxygen saturation reading using a pulse oximetry algorithm based on the plurality of detected light spectrums.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of light spectrums includes a third light spectrum having a wavelength of approximately 660 nanometers.
3. The method of claim 2, comprising:
detecting the first light spectrum via a first light filter;
detecting the second light spectrum via a second light filter; and
detecting the third light spectrum via a third light filter.
4. The method of claim 3, comprising selecting a pair of light spectrums from the first, second and third light spectrums based on an estimated oxygen saturation for use in calculating the blood oxygen saturation reading.
5. A method for measuring blood oxygen saturation comprising:
emitting a first light, the first light having a wavelength between 725 and 745 nanometers;
emitting a second light, the second light having a wavelength between 880 and 940 nanometers;
detecting the first light with a detector subsequent to the first light being scattered by tissue and interacting with a time-varying blood supply; and
detecting the second light with the detector subsequent to the second light being scattered by the tissue and interacting with a time-varying blood supply; and
calculating a blood oxygen saturation reading using a pulse oximetry algorithm based on the detected first light and the detected second light.
6. The method of claim 5, comprising:
emitting a third light having a wavelength of approximately 660 nanometers; and
detecting the third light with the detector subsequent to the third light being scattered by the tissue and interacting with a time-varying blood supply.
7. The method of claim 6, comprising:
emitting the first light from a first light emitting device;
emitting the second light from a second light emitting device; and
emitting the third light from a third light emitting device.

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. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
a fixing unit for fixing a toner image formed on a recording material by heat; and
an outer cover attached to the image forming apparatus, including an acoustic insulation member for preventing a sound and a heat conductive member having a coefficient of heat conductance higher than the acoustic insulation member and a surface layer covering the acoustic insulation member.
2. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said outer cover has the plurality of heat conductive members, and when a relationship among an area of the projection surface of the fixing unit is taken as A (m2), a total projection area of the plurality of heat conductive members as B (m2), and a coefficient of heat conductance of the heat conductive member as k(Wm\xb7K) satisfy B\u22670.2 Ak.
3. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said outer cover is provided on the downstream side in a conveying direction of the recording material of said fixing unit.
4. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat conductive member penetrates a acoustic absorption member.
5. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat conductive member is metal.
6. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the surface layer is a metal member.
7. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the surface layer is a resin member.

1. A lens cleaning warning system for a camera which receives light representing a scene, the system comprising:
a pixel array which provides image data from the light received by the camera;
a lens unit which focuses the received light onto the pixel array; and
an image processing unit which analyzes the image data corresponding to a single image to determine whether the image data corresponding to the single image indicates defects attributable to the lens being contaminated and, if so, provides an indication that the lens is contaminated, wherein the image processing unit is configured to:
generate a histogram of the image data corresponding to the single image; and
analyze the histogram for an absence of the image data within a first predetermined range of values, for a presence of the image data within a second predetermined range of values and for a presence of image data within a third predetermined range of values, not adjacent to the first or second predetermined ranges, to provide the indication that the lens is contaminated.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one lens cleaning warning unit is selected from the group consisting of a lighting unit, a display, a speaker and a vibration motor.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication is a graphic displayed on a display.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication is text displayed on a display.
5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an input unit which provides notification to the image processing unit to disable the indication responsive to receipt of the notification.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the image processing unit continues analyzing the image data after the indication is provided to determine whether the image data again indicates defects attributable to the lens being contaminated and, if not, controls the at least one lens cleaning warning unit to discontinue providing the indication.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel array and the image processing unit are provided on a single chip.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel array and the image processing unit are provided on separate chips.
9. A method of warning that a lens of a camera is contaminated comprising:
receiving light into the camera;
generating image data from the received light;
analyzing the image data corresponding to a single image for luminance values within first, second and third predetermined ranges; and
if image data values within the first predetermined range are not found and image data values within the second and third predetermined ranges are found, providing an indication that the lens is contaminated, where the third predetermined range of values is not adjacent to the first or second predetermined ranges of values.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first predetermined range is a range of luminance values corresponding to black image picture elements (pixels) and the second predetermined range is a range of luminance values adjacent to the first range in the histogram.
11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:
determining a black level of the camera;
selecting values for the first predetermined range based at least on the determined black level and
selecting values for the second predetermined range based on the first predetermined range such that there are no values of the histogram between the first and second predetermined ranges.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein the image data is a histogram of luminance values corresponding to the single image, and the step of analyzing the image data includes analyzing the histogram for luminance values within the first and second predetermined ranges.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first predetermined range is approximately 5 percent of a range of values represented by the at least one histogram.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the first predetermined range is camera-specific.
15. A method of warning that a lens of a camera is contaminated comprising:
focusing a scene within view of a lens unit onto a pixel array;
capturing the scene as a single image of image data using the pixel array;
analyzing the image data to detect whether the single image contains defects attributable to the lens being contaminated, including:
generating a histogram of the image data of the single image; and
analyzing the histogram for an absence of the image data within a first predetermined range of values and for a presence of the image data within a second predetermined range of values and a third predetermined range of values not adjacent to the first or second predetermined ranges of values to detect the defects attributable to the lens being contaminated;
repeating the focusing, capturing and analyzing steps for at least one other image; and
providing an indication that the lens is contaminated if defects attributable to the lens being contaminated are detected with respect to at least one of the captured images.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of providing the indication includes providing the indication if it is determined that a predetermined number of consecutively captured images indicate defects attributable to the lens being contaminated.

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 communication system for implementing a chat betweenamong Instant Messaging (IM) clients, comprising:
an IM presence management server which manages presence information indicating a state of each of the IM clients;
a VoIP communication connection management server which manages a connection for voice chatting using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol); and
a media server which implements multi-party voice communication by mixing voice data,
wherein, the IM presence management server, comprising:
a unit which manages, as to each of the IM clients, the presence information, information regarding media (including text and voice) usable for chatting and user information of the IM client;
a unit which provides, in accordance with an instruction from one of the IM clients, said one IM client with the presence information, the information regarding media usable for chatting and user information of each of the IM clients which are set as buddies of said one IM client;
a unit which manages, in accordance with information of each of IM clients (text participating clients) participating in a text chat, which is notified from one of the IM clients, a connection betweenamong the text participating clients and the IM presence management server; and
a unit which merges text data sent from each of the text participating clients and distributes the result to each of the text participating clients,
wherein, the VoIP communication connection management server, comprises a unit which manages a connection betweenamong each of the voice participating clients and the media server in accordance with information of each of the IM clients (voice participating clients) participating in a voice chat, which is notified from one of the IM client or the IM presence management server,
wherein, the media server, comprises a unit which performs, as to each of the voice participating clients, processing for mixing voice data sent from the voice participating clients except for the client in question (focused client) to distribute the result to the focused client,
wherein, in a case that the IM presence management server receives an instruction from one of the voice participating clients (first IM client) while the VoIP communication connection management server manages a connection betweenamong each of the voice participating clients and the media server mixes voice data sent from said first IM client with voice data sent from the other voice participating clients and distributes the result to the focused client,
the IM presence management server:
provides the first IM client with the presence information, the information regarding media usable for chatting and user information of each of the IM clients which are set as buddies of the first IM client;
manages, in accordance with information of text participating clients which is notified from the first IM client, a connection betweenamong the text participating clients, and merges text data sent from each of the text participating clients and distributes the result to each of the text participating clients;
the VoIP communication connection management server stops, in accordance with an instruction from the first IM client, management of connection betweenamong the voice participating clients, and
the media server stops mixing processing of voice data sent from said first IM client with voice data sent from the other voice participating clients.
2. A communication system according to claim 1,
wherein the media server obtains the information regarding the voice participating clients from the VoIP communication connection management server.
3. A communication system according to claim 1,
wherein the IM presence management server determines each of the voice participating clients that will participate in a voice chat on the basis of the presence information and the information regarding media usable for chatting, regarding each of the IM clients set as a buddy of the IM client which calls for the voice chat, to notify the information regarding each of the voice participating clients to the VoIP communication connection management server.
4. A communication system according to claim 1,
wherein the IM presence management server stops, in accordance with an instruction from said first IM client, management of a connection to said first IM client and merge processing of text data sent from said first IM client with text data sent from the other text participating clients.
5. An IM presence management server used for the communication system according to claim 1.
6. A VoIP communication connection management server used for the communication system according to claim 1.
7. A media server used for the communication system according to claim 1.