Author: claimsbot

What is claimed is:

1. A device for reinforcing a ground having a Young’s modulus less than 9 MPa, on which is disposed a loading structure, such as a building, the device comprising:
a series of structural inclusions disposed essentially vertically within the ground and adapted to mechanically reinforce said ground, the series of inclusions having a dimension D comprised between substantially 0.2 m and 0.6 m, said dimension D being one of:
an external diameter of one inclusion of said series, and the external diameter of a cylinder having the same volume as one inclusion of said series, two adjacent inclusions being separated in the ground by a distance (A) such as 2DA10 D, said series of inclusions being made of a material having a long term Young’s modulus comprised between 500 and 10,000 MPa,
a load transmitting layer interposed between the ground and the loading structure disposed thereon, for transmitting and distributing the load from the loading structure to both the ground and the series of inclusions, the load transmitting layer having:
a Young’s modulus less than the Young’s modulus of the series of inclusions,
a first nominal height between two adjacent inclusions of said series of inclusions, and,
a second height less than the first nominal height at locations situated just above the series of inclusions, where the load transmitting layer is plastically compressed by the series of inclusions which partially penetrate within said load transmitting layer.
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein:
2
E
y

=
i
i
E
i
+
h

L
with (Ey) being the Young’s modulus of both the load transmitting layer and the series of inclusions,
with (Es) being the Young’s modulus of the ground to be reinforced,
with (El) being the Young’s modulus of the inclusions,
with (h) being the penetrating height of the inclusions within the load transmitting layer further to the plastic compression thereof,
with (L) being the nominal height of the inclusions, before the load-transmitting layer is plastically compressed,
with (i) being the strength of compression within the series of inclusions further to the penetration of the inclusions within the load transmitting layer.
3. The device according to claim 1, wherein:
EsEy1000 Es,
with (Ey) being the Young’s modulus of both the load transmitting layer and the series of inclusions, and,
with (Es) being the Young’s modulus of the ground to be reinforced.
4. A device for reinforcing a ground on which is disposed a loading structure, such as a building, the device comprising:
a series of structural inclusions disposed within the ground and adapted to mechanically reinforce said ground,
a load transmitting layer interposed between the ground and the loading structure disposed thereon, for transmitting and distributing the load from the loading structure to both the ground and the series of inclusions, the load transmitting layer having a Young’s modulus less than the Young’s modulus of the series of inclusions, wherein:
(D) being the external diameter of a cylinder having the same volume as one inclusion of said series which support the load of the loading structure,
(A) being the length of one side of a square equivalent to the distance between two adjacent inclusions in the ground,
(Ei) being the Young’s modulus of the inclusions, and
(Ec) being the Young’s modulus of the load transmitting layer:
0.1 mD0.8 m 2DA10 D, and
if D0.3 m, then 5,000 MPaEi12,000 MPa,
if D0.3 m, then 500 MPaEl10,000 MPa, and Ec80 MPa.
5. A device for reinforcing a ground on which is disposed a loading structure, such as a building, the device comprising:
a series of inclusions disposed essentially vertically within the ground and adapted to mechanically reinforce said ground, every inclusion having a volume, and two adjacent inclusions being separated by a determined distance,
a load transmitting layer interposed between the ground to be reinforced and the load disposed thereon, for transmitting and distributing the load from the loading structure to both the ground and the series of inclusions, wherein:
(D) being the diameter of a cylinder having the same volume as one of said series of inclusions which support the load of the loading structure,
(A) being the length of one side of a square equivalent to said distance between two adjacent inclusions in the ground, and
h1 being the nominal height of the load transmitting layer,
D60 being the sieve diameter corresponding to 60% passing in the ASTM Standard sieve analysis, and
D10 being the sieve diameter corresponding to 10% passing in the ASTM Standard sieve analysis.
0.1 mD0.8 m 2DA10 D, 0.3 mh11.5 m, and D60D10<6.
6. A drill adapted for digging an annular hole in a ground, and for providing said hole with a concrete, said drill comprising:
a central tube having an axis, a top end portion and a bottom end portion,
a first helical blade axially arranged around the top end portion of the central tube,
a second helical blade axially arranged around the bottom end portion of the central tube,
the second helical blade having a diameter larger than the first helical blade,
a lining partially arranged around the first helical blade, and extending axially beyond said first helical blade, the lining comprising a double-walled portion defining an inner chamber in fluid communication with a duct crossing the first helical blade, said duct being in fluid communication with the central tube, for injecting therein the concrete,
a third helical blade arranged around the lining,
a movable trap closing an opening of said inner chamber of the lining, said trap being adapted to be opened for allowing the concrete to fill the annular hole.

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 system for rapidly tracking multiple faces, comprising:
a face-like region generator having a skin region extractor, a motion analyzer and a silhouette analyzer, the skin region extractor generating a plurality of skin regions by detecting skin color pixels of an input image, the motion analyzer determining possible face-like regions from the skin regions based on moving information of the input image, and the silhouette analyzer analyzing whether there exists a raised shape in the input image to accordingly separate connected face regions and determining that there exists a face-like region based on the following conditions: e(i)>w and e(j)<\u2212w, where w=0.5*(p(j))\u2212p(i)); e(i)=d(p(i)); d(x)=v(x\u22121)\u2212v(x+1); v(x) denotes a vertical position of the first touched pixel of a connected region when tracking all pixels of an image along the x-th column from top to down: e( ) denotes the edge response of a vertical edge; p( ) denotes a position of the vertical edge; i denotes an ith pixel; j denotes a jth frame; and w denotes a weight of the face-like region;
a face recorder for recording tracked faces;
a face status checker for checking the face-like regions and the faces previously tracked and recorded in the face recorder to determine whether the face-like regions are old faces which have been tracked in a previous frame or possible new faces that are newly occurring faces;
a face verification engine for determining whether the possible new faces are new faces; and
a face tracking engine for tracking multiple faces based on the new and old faces, and the skin regions provided by the skin region extractor, wherein, when a tracked face is a new face, the face tracking engine directly adds the new face to the face recorder; and when a tracked face is an old face, the face tracking engine determines whether there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region; wherein if there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region, the face tracking engine determines that the old face is still in the current frame and locates in the center of the skin region; and if there does not exist more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region, the position of the old face is determined by a correlation operation.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein, if the face tracking engine determines that there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between an old face and a skin region, the face-like region is labeled as a tracked old face.
3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the motion analyzer, luminance difference between two successive images is used as a moving information, and a pixel is defined as a moving pixel if its luminance difference between two adjacent images is larger than a threshold; if there are more than a predefined percentage of pixels classified as moving pixels in a skin region, the region is labeled as a possible face-like region.
4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the skin region extractor generates a plurality of connected skin regions based on an adaptive skin color model representing skin features of different people.
5. The system as claimed in claim 4, further comprising an adjuster for dynamically updating the adaptive skin color model according to an update of the face recorder.
6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the face verification engine has a filter and an verification processor; said filter filters out false faces from input possible new faces, and the other possible new faces are fed into the verification processor for finding new faces by eigen-face analysis.
7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the filter finds a false face based on a combination of compactness of a tracked region, ratio between the height and width of a face, statistic variance of a face, number of holes existing in a region, and convexity of a face.
8. A system for rapidly tracking multiple faces comprising:
a face-like region generator having a skin region extractor, a motion analyzer and a silhouette analyzer, the skin region extractor generating a plurality of skin regions by detecting skin color pixels of an input image; the motion analyzer determining possible face-like regions from the skin regions based on moving information of the input image, the silhouette analyzer analyzing whether there exists a raised shape in the image to accordingly separate connected regions, and the silhouette analyzer determining that there exists a face-like region based on the following conditions: e(i)>w and e(j)<\u2212w, where w=0.5*(p(j)\u2212p(i)); e(i)=d(p(i); d(x)=v(x\u22121)\u2212v(x+1); v(x) denotes a vertical position of the first touched pixel of a connected region when tracking all pixels of an image along the x-th column from top to down; e( ) denotes the edge response of a vertical edge; p( ) denotes a position of the vertical edge; i denotes an ith pixel; j denotes a jth frame; and w denotes a weight of the face-like region;
a face verification engine for determining that possible new faces are new faces which are newly occurring in a current frame; and
a face tracking engine for tracking multiple faces based on the old and possible new faces and the skin regions provided by the skin region extractor, wherein the face tracking engine has a filter and a verification processor; the filter filters out false faces from input possible new faces, and the other possible new faces are fed into the verification processor for finding the new faces by eigen-face analysis;
a face recorder for recording faces that have been tracked by the face tracking engine; and
a face status checker for checking the face-like regions and the faces previously tracked and recorded in the face recorder to determine whether the face-like regions are old faces which have been tracked in a previous frame or are possible new faces that are newly occurring faces, wherein only the possible new faces determined are fed into the face verification engine, and the old faces are directly fed into the face tracking engine.
9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein, if the face status checker determines that there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between a face-like region and a tracked face, the face-like region is labeled as a tracked old face.
10. The system for tracking multiple faces rapidly as claimed in claim 8, wherein the filter finds a false face based on a combination of compactness of a tracked region, ratio between the height and width of a face, statistic variance of a face, number of holes existing in a region, and convexity of a face.
11. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein, when a tracked face is a new face, the face tracking engine directly adds the new face to the face recorder; when a tracked face is an old face, the face tracking engine determines whether there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region; if yes, it is determined that the old face is still occurring in the current frame and locating in the center of the skin region; an if there does not exist more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region, the position of the old face is determined by correlation operation.
12. The system for tracking multiple faces rapidly as claimed in claim 8, wherein the skin region extractor generates a plurality of connected skin regions based on an adaptive skin color model representing skin features of different people.
13. A method for rapidly tracking multiple faces comprising the steps of:
(A) detecting skin color pixels of an input image for generating a plurality of skin regions;
(B) determining possible face-like regions in the skin regions based on moving information of the input image;
(B\u2032) analyzing whether there exists a raised shape in the image to accordingly separate connected face regions, wherein it is determined that there exists a face-like region based on the following condition: e(i)>w and e(j)<\u2212w, where w=0.5*(p(j)\u2212p(i)); e(i)=d(p(i)); d(x)=v(x\u22121)\u2212v(x+1); v(x) denotes a vertical position of the first touched pixel of a connected region when tracking all pixels of an image along the x-th column from top to down; e( ) denotes the edge response of a vertical edge; p( ) denotes a position of the vertical edge; i denotes an ith pixel; j denotes a jth frame; and w denotes a weight of the face-like region;
(C) checking the face-like regions and tracked faces previously stored to determine whether the face-like regions are old faces that have been tracked in a previous frame or possible new faces that are newly occurring in a current frame, wherein, if the face-like regions are the old faces, it is further determined whether there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between an old face and a skin region: wherein if there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region, the face tracking engine determines that the old face is still in the current frame and locates in the center of the skin region; and if there does not exist more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the old face and a skin region, the position of the old face is determined by a correlation operation; and
(D) determining whether the possible new faces are new faces; if yes, recording the new faces.
14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein in step (C), if there exists more than a predefined percentage of overlapping area between the face-like region and a tracked face, the face-like region is an old face that has been previously tracked.
15. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein in step (B), luminance difference between two successive images is used as a moving information, and a pixel is defined as a moving pixel if its luminance difference between two adjacent images is larger than a threshold; if there is more than a predefined percentage of pixels classified as moving pixels in a skin region, the region is labeled as a possible face-like region.
16. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein, in step (D), false faces from the input possible new faces are first filtered out, and the other possible new faces are verified for finding new faces by eigen-face analysis.
17. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein, in step (D), the false faces are found based on a combination of compactness of a tracked region, ratio between the height and width of a face, statistic variance of a face, number of holes existing in a region, and convexity of a face.

1. A chip package comprising:
a substrate;
a semiconductor device over said substrate, wherein said semiconductor device comprises a silicon substrate, a dielectric layer under said silicon substrate, a first metal layer under said dielectric layer, wherein said first metal layer comprises a metal pad and a metal piece separate from said metal pad and neighboring said metal pad, and a polymer layer under said dielectric layer, under said metal pad, under said metal piece and in a gap between said metal pad and said metal piece, wherein an opening in said polymer layer is under a first contact point of said metal pad, and said first contact point is at a top of said opening;
a copper pillar between said first contact point and said substrate, wherein said copper pillar has a height between 10 and 100 micrometers, and wherein said copper pillar is connected to said first contact point through said opening;
a second metal layer between said first contact point and said copper pillar, wherein said second metal layer is on said first contact point, on a bottom surface of said polymer layer and in said opening, wherein said bottom surface has a first region directly over said second metal layer and directly under said metal pad and a second region directly under the middle of said gap, wherein said first region is at a substantially same horizontal level as said second region, and there is no significant step between said first region and said second region, and wherein said copper pillar is connected to said first contact point through said second metal layer;
a solder between said copper pillar and said substrate, wherein said solder is joined with said substrate, and wherein said solder is connected to said copper pillar; and
an underfill between said semiconductor device and said substrate, wherein said underfill contacts with said semiconductor device and said substrate and encloses said copper pillar.
2. The chip package of claim 1 further comprising a nickel-containing layer between said solder and said copper pillar.
3. The chip package of claim 2, wherein said nickel-containing layer has a thickness between 1 and 10 micrometers.
4. The chip package of claim 1, wherein said second metal layer comprises titanium.
5. The chip package of claim 1, wherein said metal pad comprises copper.
6. The chip package of claim 1, wherein said substrate comprises a solder mask, a second contact point in a channel in said solder mask, a third contact point in said channel, wherein said second contact point is separate from said third contact point, and wherein said channel has a first sidewall and a second sidewall opposite to and substantially parallel with said first sidewall, a first interconnect covered by said solder mask and connected to said second contact point through said first sidewall, and a second interconnect covered by said solder mask and connected to said third contact point through said second sidewall, wherein said solder is joined with said second contact point.
7. A chip package comprising:
a substrate;
a semiconductor device over said substrate, wherein said semiconductor device comprises a silicon substrate, a dielectric layer under said silicon substrate, a first metal layer under said dielectric layer, wherein said first metal layer comprises a metal pad and a metal piece separate from said metal pad and neighboring said metal pad, and a polymer layer under said dielectric layer, under said metal pad, under said metal piece and in a gap between said metal pad and said metal piece, wherein an opening in said polymer layer is under a first contact point of said metal pad, and said first contact point is at a top of said opening;
a copper-containing layer between said first contact point and said substrate, wherein said copper-containing layer is connected to said first contact point through said opening;
a second metal layer between said first contact point and said copper-containing layer, wherein said second metal layer is on said first contact point, on a bottom surface of said polymer layer and in said opening, wherein said bottom surface has a first region directly over said second metal layer and directly under said metal pad and a second region directly under the middle of said gap, wherein said first region is at a substantially same horizontal level as said second region, and there is no significant step between said first region and said second region, and wherein said copper-containing layer is connected to said first contact point through said second metal layer;
a solder between said copper-containing layer and said substrate, wherein said solder is joined with said substrate, and wherein said solder is connected to said copper-containing layer; and
an underfill between said semiconductor device and said substrate, wherein said underfill contacts with said semiconductor device and said substrate and encloses said solder.
8. The chip package of claim 7, wherein said second metal layer comprises titanium.
9. The chip package of claim 7, wherein said metal pad comprises copper.
10. The chip package of claim 7, wherein said copper-containing layer has a thickness between 10 and 100 micrometers.
11. The chip package of claim 7, wherein said substrate comprises a solder mask, a second contact point in a channel in said solder mask, a third contact point in said channel, wherein said second contact point is separate from said third contact point, and wherein said channel has a first sidewall and a second sidewall opposite to and substantially parallel with said first sidewall, a first interconnect covered by said solder mask and connected to said second contact point through said first sidewall, and a second interconnect covered by said solder mask and connected to said third contact point through said second sidewall, wherein said solder is joined with said second contact point.
12. A chip package comprising:
a substrate;
a semiconductor device over said substrate, wherein said semiconductor device comprises a silicon substrate, a dielectric layer under said silicon substrate, a first metal layer under said dielectric layer, wherein said first metal layer comprises a metal pad and a metal piece separate from said metal pad and neighboring said metal pad, and a polymer layer under said dielectric layer, under said metal pad, under said metal piece and in a gap between said metal pad and said metal piece, wherein an opening in said polymer layer is under a first contact point of said metal pad, and said first contact point is at a top of said opening;
a copper-containing layer between said first contact point and said substrate, wherein said copper-containing layer is connected to said first contact point through said opening;
a second metal layer between said first contact point and said copper-containing layer, wherein said second metal layer is on said first contact point, on a bottom surface of said polymer layer and in said opening, wherein said bottom surface has a first region directly over said second metal layer and directly under said metal pad and a second region directly under the middle of said gap, wherein said first region is at a substantially same horizontal level as said second region, and there is no significant step between said first region and said second region, and wherein said copper-containing layer is connected to said first contact point through said second metal layer;
a solder between said copper-containing layer and said substrate, wherein said solder is joined with said substrate, and wherein said solder is connected to said copper-containing layer;
a nickel-containing layer between said copper-containing layer and said solder; and
an underfill between said semiconductor device and said substrate, wherein said underfill contacts with said semiconductor device and said substrate and encloses said solder.
13. The chip package of claim 12, wherein said second metal layer comprises titanium.
14. The chip package of claim 12, wherein said metal pad comprises copper.
15. The chip package of claim 12, wherein said copper-containing layer has a thickness between 10 and 100 micrometers.
16. The chip package of claim 12, wherein said nickel-containing layer has a thickness between 1 and 10 micrometers.
17. A chip package comprising:
a substrate;
a semiconductor device over said substrate, wherein said semiconductor device comprises a silicon substrate, a dielectric layer under said silicon substrate, a first metal layer under said dielectric layer, wherein said first metal layer comprises a metal pad and a metal piece separate from said metal pad and neighboring said metal pad, and a polymer layer under said dielectric layer, under said metal pad, under said metal piece and in a gap between said metal pad and said metal piece, wherein an opening in said polymer layer is under a first contact point of said metal pad, and said first contact point is at a top of said opening;
a nickel-containing layer between said first contact point and said substrate, wherein said nickel-containing layer is connected to said first contact point through said opening;
a second metal layer between said first contact point and said nickel-containing layer, wherein said second metal layer is on said first contact point, on a bottom surface of said polymer layer and in said opening, wherein said bottom surface has a first region directly over said second metal layer and directly under said metal pad and a second region directly under the middle of said gap, wherein said first region is at a substantially same horizontal level as said second region, and there is no significant step between said first region and said second region, and wherein said nickel-containing layer is connected to said first contact point through said second metal layer;
a solder between said nickel-containing layer and said substrate, wherein said solder is joined with said substrate, and wherein said solder is connected to said nickel-containing layer; and
an underfill between said semiconductor device and said substrate, wherein said underfill contacts with said semiconductor device and said substrate and encloses said solder.
18. The chip package of claim 17, wherein said second metal layer comprises titanium.
19. The chip package of claim 17, wherein said metal pad comprises copper .
20. The chip package of claim 17, wherein said nickel-containing layer has a thickness between 1 and 10 micrometers.

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 for synchronizing at least one database of a portable electronic device including first data records with at least one other database including second data records, the method comprising:
receiving information representative of said first data records
comparing said information representative of said first data records with information representative of said second data records to determine if changes made to either said first data records or said second data records are not reflected in the other of said first and second data records;
if changes made to said second data records are not reflected in said first data records, transmitting to the portable electronic device only partial content of ones of changed second data records, said partial content including key fields of data sufficient to uniquely identify said ones of changed second data records in which said key fields of data are contained; and
after transmitting only partial content of said ones of changed second data records to said portable electronic device, transmitting full content of said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content has been transmitted until either:
full content of each of said ones of changed second data records is transmitted; or
a low memory condition is determined at the portable electronic device.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said receiving information representative of said first data records comprises receiving hash information representative of said first data records.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said comparing comprises comparing said hash information representative of said first data records with hash information representative of said second data records.
4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising generating said hash information representative of said second data records prior to said comparing.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein generating said hash information comprises generating hash information representative of key fields of data only for said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content is transmitted to said portable electronic device.
6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising associating said second data records with an identifier for identifying said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content is transmitted to said portable electronic device.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said full content of said ones of changed second data records is transmitted in response to receiving a request.
8. The method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting full content of other ones of changed data records that are indicated for full content transmission, prior to transmitting full content of said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content has been transmitted to said portable electronic device.
9. The method according to claim 1, wherein full content of said ones of changed second data records is transmitted according to an assigned priority.
10. An apparatus for synchronizing at least one database of a portable electronic device including first data records with at least one other database including second data records, the apparatus comprising:
a memory device for storing said at least one other database including said second data records;
a receiver for receiving information representative of said first data records
a processor for comparing said information representative of said first data records with information representative of said second data records to determine if changes made to either said first data records or said second data records are not reflected in the other of said first and second data records;
a transmitter for transmitting to said portable electronic device, only partial content of ones of changed second data records, said partial content including key fields of data sufficient to uniquely identify said ones of changed second data records in which said key fields of data are contained, if changes made to said ones of changed second data records are not reflected in said first data records, and for transmitting full content of said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content has been transmitted until either:
full content of each of said ones of changed second data records is transmitted; or
a low memory condition is determined at the portable electronic device.
11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said information representative of said first data records comprises hash information representative of said first data records, and said information representative of said second data records comprises hash information representative of said second data records.
12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said processor is configured to generate said hash information representative of said second data records prior to said comparing and said hash information representative of said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content has been transmitted comprises hash information representative of key fields of data only.
13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein an identifier is associated with said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content is transmitted.
14. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said transmitter is configured for transmitting full content of other ones of changed second data records that are indicated for full content transmission.
15. A computer-readable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for:
receiving information representative of said first data records
comparing said information representative of said first data records with information representative of said second data records to determine if changes made to either said first data records or said second data records are not reflected in the other of said first and second data records; and
if changes made to said second data records are not reflected in said first data records, transmitting to said portable electronic device only partial content of ones of changed second data records, said partial content including key fields of data sufficient to uniquely identify said ones of changed second data records in which said key fields of data are contained; and
after transmitting only partial content of said ones of changed second data records to said portable electronic device, transmitting full content of said ones of changed second data records for which only partial content has been transmitted until either:
full content of each of said ones of changed second data records is transmitted; or
a low memory condition is determined at the portable electronic device.