All The Claims

1. A fiber aligner comprising:
a thin strip of elastically flexible material; and
a plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the thin strip.
2. The fiber aligner of claim 1, wherein the thin strip includes a first side and a second side, and at least one of the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas is formed on the first side and another of the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas is formed on the second side.
3. The fiber aligner of claim 1, wherein the thin strip includes a first side and a second side, and the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas includes first and second piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the first side and third and fourth piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the second side.
4. The fiber aligner of claim 3, wherein the first piezoelectric-material-coated area is opposite the third piezoelectric-material-coated area and the second piezoelectric-material-coated area is opposite the fourth piezoelectric-material-coated area.
5. The fiber aligner of claim 1, wherein the thin strip of elastically flexible material is formed of a material from a group consisting of spring steel, beryllium copper, and fiber reinforced polymer.
6. The fiber aligner of claim 1, wherein the piezoelectric-material-coated areas are coated with a piezoelectric material taken from a group consisting of barium and titanate.
7. The fiber aligner of claim 1, wherein the thin strip includes a first end configured to attach to a fiber support and a second end configured to attach to a mounting block.
8. The fiber aligner of claim 7, wherein the thin strip of elastically flexible material and the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the thin strip are configured to move a fiber loaded in the fiber support in a first direction.
9. The fiber aligner of claim 8, wherein the thin strip of elastically flexible material and the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the thin strip are also configured to move the fiber loaded in the fiber support in a second direction, which is substantially orthogonal to the first direction.
10. The fiber aligner of claim 7, wherein the thin strip of elastically flexible material and the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the thin strip are configured to move a fiber loaded in the fiber support in a rotational direction.
11. The fiber aligner of claim 1, further comprising:
a view angle detector configured to detect an angular misalignment of two optical fibers.
12. The fiber aligner of claim 11, further comprising:
a feedback loop configured to selectively deliver voltages to the a plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the thin strip to cause a deflection in the thin strip that substantially aligns the two optical fibers.
13. A fiber splicing system comprising:
a fiber support configured to hold at least one fiber;
a fiber aligner coupled to the fiber support, the fiber aligner comprising:
a thin strip of elastically flexible material; and
a plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the thin strip; and

a splicer configured to splice the at least one optical fiber with another optical fiber.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the thin strip includes a first side and a second side, and at least one of the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas is formed on the first side and another of the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas is formed on the second side.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the thin strip includes a first side and a second side, and the plurality of piezoelectric-material-coated areas includes first and second piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the first side and third and fourth piezoelectric-material-coated areas formed on the second side.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first piezoelectric-material-coated area is opposite the third piezoelectric-material-coated area and the second piezoelectric-material-coated area is opposite the fourth piezoelectric-material-coated area.
17. The system of claim 13, further comprising:
a view angle detector configured to detect an angular misalignment of the at least one optical fiber with the other optical fiber.
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 piston for use in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine, the piston having a crown portion extending away from a top end of the piston, an oval barrelled skirt depending from the crown so as to define a bottom end of the piston and a contact zone on a thrust side of the barrelled skirt and a contact zone on an anti-thrust side of the barrelled skirt wherein:
the contact zone on the thrust side has a longitudinal axis bounded on a first side by a column of spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets and bounded on a second side by a column of spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets, a central portion of the contact zone free of closed ended elongated pockets and extending a length of the columns of spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets; and
the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the column on the first side having longitudinal axes arranged at an acute angle \u03b8 with respect to the longitudinal axis of the contact zone on the thrust side, the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the column on the second side having longitudinal axes arranged at the acute angle \u03b8 with respect to the longitudinal axis of the contact zone on the thrust side, the acute angle \u03b8 being less than 90 degrees and positive for the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the column on the first side of spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets, the acute angle \u03b8 being negative for the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the column on the second side.
2. The piston of claim 1 wherein a transverse axis of the contact zone divides the column of spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets on the first side and the column of spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets on the second side into a pair of upper groups and a pair of lower groups, wherein the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets located in the pair of upper groups include ends nearest the bottom end of the piston being ends nearest the longitudinal axis of the contact zone on the thrust side, and wherein the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets located in the pair of lower groups include ends nearest the top end of the piston being ends nearest the longitudinal axis of the contact zone on the thrust side.
3. The piston of claim 2 wherein the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of upper groups are arranged in a herringbone pattern directed towards the transverse axis.
4. The piston of claim 2 wherein each of the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of upper groups has an inner end and an outer end and the inner end of each spaced apart closed ended elongate pocket is located further from the top end of the piston than the outer end of each spaced apart closed ended elongate pocket.
5. The piston of claim 2 wherein each of the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of upper groups has an inner end and an outer end and each of the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of upper groups has the inner end located nearer to the longitudinal axis of the contact zone on the thrust side than the outer end.
6. The piston of claim 1 wherein a transverse axis of the contact zone on the thrust side divides each column into a pair of upper groups and a pair of lower groups and the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets located in the pair of lower groups are oriented so as to reduce flow of oil from the central portion during downward motion of the piston.
7. The piston of claim 6 wherein the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of lower groups are arranged in a herringbone pattern directed towards the transverse axis.
8. The piston of claim 6 wherein each of the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of lower groups has an inner end and an outer end and the inner end of each spaced apart closed ended elongate pocket is located nearer to the top end of the piston than the outer end.
9. The piston of claim 6 wherein each of the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of lower groups has an inner end and an outer end and each of the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets in the pair of lower groups has the inner end located nearer to the longitudinal axis of the contact zone on the thrust side than the outer end.
10. The piston of claim 1 wherein the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets are oriented so as to encourage flow of oil into the central portion of the respective contact zone during use of the piston.
11. The piston of claim 1 wherein the longitudinal axis of the contact zone is arranged coincident with a line joining high points on a surface of the oval barreled skirt.
12. The piston of claim 2 wherein the transverse axis of the contact zone is arranged substantially coincident with a line joining high points on a surface of the oval barreled skirt.
13. The piston of claim 1 wherein the contact zone on the thrust side has a coating formed thereon and the spaced apart closed ended elongate pockets are formed in the coating.
14. A piston for use in a crank-slider arrangement, the piston having contact zones on thrust and anti-thrust sides of a skirt of the piston, comprising:
a column of a first group of closed ended elongate pockets on a first side of a contact zone on the thrust side of the skirt, the contact zone being free of closed ended elongate pockets and extending a length of the column, the column of the first group of closed ended elongate pockets including longitudinal axes, and a column of a second group of closed ended elongate pockets on a second side of the contact zone, the column of the second group of closed ended elongate pockets including longitudinal axes, wherein the longitudinal axes of the column of the first group of closed ended elongate pockets and the longitudinal axes of the column of the second group of closed ended elongate pockets are arranged at an oblique angle \u03c9 with respect to a longitudinal axis of the contact zone, and wherein the oblique angle \u03c9 is greater than 90 degrees and is positive with respect to the longitudinal axes of the column of the first group of closed ended elongate pockets and negative with respect to the longitudinal axes of the column of the second group of closed ended elongate pockets.
15. The piston of claim 14 wherein each contact zone has a transverse axis generally perpendicular with a longitudinal axis, with each closed ended elongate pocket located in one of an upper left zone, an upper right zone, a lower left zone, and a lower right zone.
16. The piston of claim 14 wherein each contact zone has a transverse axis generally perpendicular with a longitudinal axis with each closed ended elongate pocket located in one of an upper left zone, an upper right zone, a lower left zone, and a lower right zone wherein a first end of each closed ended elongate pocket is an end located closer to the transverse axis and a second end of each closed ended elongate pocket is located farther away from the longitudinal axis.
17. The piston of claim 16 wherein the longitudinal axis of the contact zone is arranged coincident with a line joining high points on a surface of the skirt due to an oval shape of the piston and the transverse axis of the contact zone is arranged substantially coincident with a line joining high points on the surface of the skirt due to a barrel shape of the piston.
18. The piston of claim 14 wherein the contact zone has a central portion arranged longitudinally and the first group of closed ended elongate pockets is arranged on one side of the central portion.
19. A piston for reciprocating a cylinder, the piston having a skirt and a contact zone on each of thrust and anti-thrust sides of the skirt comprising:
a column of closed ended elongate pockets arranged on a first side of a longitudinal axis of each contact zone and a column of closed ended elongate pockets arranged on a second side of the longitudinal axis of each contact zone, the closed ended elongate pockets on the first side including longitudinal axes arranged at an acute angle \u03b8 with respect to a longitudinal axis of each contact zone at a location above a transverse axis of the piston, the closed ended elongate pockets on the second side having longitudinal axes arranged at the acute angle \u03b8 with respect to a longitudinal axis of the contact zone at a location above the transverse axis of the piston, the acute angle \u03b8 less than 90 degrees, the acute angle \u03b8 being positive for the closed ended elongate pockets on the first side, and the acute angle \u03b8 being negative for the closed ended elongate pockets on the second side, where each contact zone includes a central portion absent closed ended elongate pockets, and where the contact zone extends a length of the columns of closed ended elongate pockets.
20. The piston of claim 19 wherein each contact zone has a respective central portion where the column of closed ended elongate pockets arranged on the first side of the longitudinal axis of the contact zone and the column of closed ended elongate pockets arranged on the second side of the longitudinal axis of the contact zone are located outside the central portion, further comprising the closed ended elongate pockets on the column on the first side including longitudinal axes arranged at an oblique angle w with respect to the longitudinal axis of the contact zone at a first location below the transverse axis of the piston and the closed ended elongate pockets on the column on the second side including longitudinal axes arranged at the oblique angle \u03c9 with respect to the longitudinal axis of the contact zone at a second location below the transverse axis of the piston, the oblique angle w being positive for the column on the first side and negative for the column on the second side.

1. A method, comprising:
producing a framing assembly pattern for a micro-actuator from a thin planar piece of material, the framing assembly pattern including:
a base piece to be coupled to the head gimbal assembly;
a first arm; and
a second arm;
bending the first arm into a position perpendicular to the base piece;
bending a first support into a position perpendicular to the first arm, the first support to be coupled to a connection plate to electrically couple a magnetic head to a printed circuit assembly;
bending the second arm into a position perpendicular to the base piece;
bending a second support for the connection plate into a position perpendicular to the second arm, wherein the first arm extends continuously to attach to the base piece to the first support, and the second arm extends continuously to attach to the base piece, and wherein the first and second arms continuously extend perpendicularly to the base, the first support and the second support; and
coupling a magnetic readwrite head to the framing assembly to form \u2018U\u2019-shaped micro actuator.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising coupling the framing assembly to a suspension assembly of the head gimbal assembly.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the framing assembly is comprised of metal.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising bending a support base of the base piece in a position perpendicular to a rear support of the base piece, the support base to be coupled the head gimbal assembly.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first arm and the second arm are bent perpendicular to the rear support in a position further perpendicular to the support base.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising a first strip of piezoelectric actuator material coupled to the first arm.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising a second strip of piezoelectric actuator material coupled to the second arm.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the framing assembly pattern is produced by cutting the framing assembly pattern from the thin planar piece of material.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the framing assembly pattern is produced by cutting away excess material from the thin planar piece of material, then separating a remaining set of framing assembly patterns.

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 analyzing the performance of a center handling calls, comprising
confirming that the audio records of a plurality of calls have been received by the center handling calls,
having the audio records analyzed to identify the occurrences of events in the plurality of calls,
identifying at least one call property representative of a sequence of one or more events which occurs in the plurality of calls,
generating a browseable user interface listing the plurality of calls having the identified call property.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the identified call property is a performance metric representative of the effectiveness of the center handling calls.
3. A method according to claim 2, further comprising receiving a user input indicating a target performance metric for the plurality of calls.
4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising determining whether the performance metric in the plurality of calls meets the target performance metric, and generating an alert if the performance metric of the plurality of calls does not correspond to the target performance metric.
5. A method according to claim 1, further comprising generating an alert based on at least one call property.
6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising sorting the list of calls based on at least one call property.
7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising filtering the list of calls such that a subset of the plurality of calls is displayed based on at least on one call property.
8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising allowing a user to select a call in the list of calls, wherein selection results in displaying a list of events which occurred during the selected call.
9. A method according to claim 8, further comprising allowing the user to playback at least a portion of the audio record of the selected call.
10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the at least a portion of the audio record comprises a portion of the audio record between a start time and end time associated with an identified event in the selected call.
11. A method according to claim 1, further comprising allowing a user to define a characteristic audio pattern which occurs in the audio record as an event.
12. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one call property comprises identifying a predetermined sequence of events stored in a database of call events.
13. A method according to claim 1, wherein the identified call property represents a final state of the call.
14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the final state of the call comprises at least one of: billing, payment, unintentional dropped call, intentional dropped call, on hold, routed to call agent, or a final user input into an interactive voice response system.
15. A method according to claim 1, wherein the identified call property is based on a pattern of at least one or more inputs to an interactive voice response system.
16. A method according to claim 1, wherein the identified call property comprises at least one of: a caller phone number, a date of the call, a time of the call, the duration of the call, or the time the call was routed to a live agent.
17. A system for analyzing the performance of a center handling calls, comprising
a call analyzer configured to
confirm that the audio records of a plurality of calls handled by a center handling calls have been received,
have the audio records analyzed to identify the occurrences of events in the plurality of calls, and
identify at least one call property representative of a pattern of one or more events which occurs in the plurality of calls, and

a browseable user interface configured to list a plurality of calls having at least one identified call property.
18. A system according to claim 17, wherein the identified call property is a performance metric representative of the effectiveness of the center handling calls.
19. A system according to claim 18, wherein the call analyzer is further configured to receive a user input indicating a target performance metric for the plurality of calls.
20. A system according to claim 19, wherein the call analyzer is further configured to determine whether the performance metric in the plurality of calls meets the target performance metric and to generate an alert if the performance metric of the plurality of calls does not correspond to the target performance metric.
21. A system according to claim 17, wherein the call analyzer is further configured to generate an alert based on at least one call property.
22. A system according to claim 17, wherein the browseable user interface is configured to allow the user to sort the list of calls based at least on one call property.
23. A system according to claim 17, wherein the browseable user interface is configured to allow the user to filter the list of calls such that a subset of the plurality of calls is displayed based at least one call property.
24. A system according to claim 17, wherein the browseable user interface is further configured to allow a user to select a call in the list of calls, wherein selection results in displaying a list of events which occurred during the selected call.
25. A system according to claim 24, wherein the browseable user interface is further configured to allow the user to playback at least a portion of the audio record of the selected call.
26. A system according to claim 25, wherein the at least a portion of the audio record comprises a portion of the audio record between a start time and end time associated with an identified event in the selected call.
27. A system according to claim 17, wherein the call analyzer is further configured to allow a user to define a characteristic audio pattern which occurs in the audio record as an event.
28. A system according to claim 17, wherein identifying at least one call property comprises identifying a predetermined sequence of events stored in a database of call events.
29. A system according to claim 17, wherein the identified call property represents a final state of the call.
30. A system according to claim 29, wherein the final state of the call comprises at least one of: billing, payment, unintentional dropped call, intentional dropped call, on hold, routed to call agent, or a final user input into an interactive voice response system.
31. A system according to claim 17, wherein the identified call property is based on a pattern of at least one or more inputs to an interactive voice response system.
32. A system according to claim 17, wherein the identified call property comprises at least one of: a caller phone number, a date of the call, a time of the call, the duration of the call, or the time the call was routed to a live agent.