A novel approach to obviousness: An algorithm for identifying prior art concerning 3-D printing materials

With the development and commercialization of the recyclebot (plastic extruders that fabricate 3-D printing filament from recycled or virgin materials) and various syringe pump designs for self-replicating rapid prototypers (RepRaps), the material selection available for consumers who produce products using 3-D printers is expanding rapidly. This paper provides an open-source algorithm for identifying prior art for 3-D printing materials. Specifically this paper provides a new approach for determining obviousness in this technology area. The potential ramifications on both innovation and patent law in the 3-D printing technological space are discussed.     

Investigating users’ intuitive interaction with complex artefacts

This paper examines the role of intuition in the way that people operate unfamiliar devices. Intuition is a type of cognitive processing that is often non-conscious and utilises stored experiential knowledge. Intuitive interaction involves the use of knowledge gained from other products and/or experiences. Two initial experimental studies revealed that prior exposure to products employing similar features helped participants to complete set tasks more quickly and intuitively, and that familiar features were intuitively used more often than unfamiliar ones. A third experiment confirmed that performance is affected by a person's level of familiarity with similar technologies, and also revealed that appearance (shape, size and labelling of features) seems to be the variable that most affects time spent on a task and intuitive uses during that time. Age also seems to have an effect. These results and their implications are discussed.     

Bayesian Inference and Life Testing Plan for the Weibull Distribution in Presence of Progressive Censoring

This article deals with the Bayesian inference of unknown parameters of the progressively censored Weibull distribution. It is well known that for a Weibull distribution, while computing the Bayes estimates, the continuous conjugate joint prior distribution of the shape and scale parameters does not exist. In this article it is assumed that the shape parameter has a log-concave prior density function, and for the given shape parameter, the scale parameter has a conjugate prior distribution. As expected, when the shape parameter is unknown, the closed-form expressions of the Bayes estimators cannot be obtained. We use Lindley's approximation to compute the Bayes estimates and the Gibbs sampling procedure to calculate the credible intervals. For given priors, we also provide a methodology to compare two different censoring schemes and thus find the optimal Bayesian censoring scheme. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to observe the behavior of the proposed methods, and a data analysis is onducted for illustrative purposes.     

Advanced soft magnetic composite materials for AC applications with reduced iron losses

Achieving high density with soft magnetic composite (SMC) materials requires compaction pressures exceeding 700?MPa; resulting in significant work hardening of the iron powder particles, increasing the DC magnetic coercive force along with a corresponding increase in the hysteresis loss portion of the total core loss. Annealing the as-compacted component at temperatures at or above 650°C reduces the coercive DC force and tends to decrease the AC core losses provided that the insulation layer is stable during the annealing cycle. Detailed in this paper are preliminary results utilising a novel electrically insulating inorganic coating applied to iron particles targeting fabrication of SMCs for low to medium frequency applications. This novel coating uniformly covers the iron powder and can withstand a curing temperature ≥650°C (≥1200°F). Various curing temperatures and processing conditions were evaluated and will be discussed in terms of mechanical properties as well as magnetic performance. This new material will be compared to the existing high density SMC grade that was cured at 450°C (932°F).     

Incorporating prior knowledge in support vector regression

This paper explores the incorporation of prior knowledge in support vector regresion by the addition of constraints. Equality and inequality constraints are studied with the corresponding types of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method. These include particular points with known values, prior knowledge on any derivative of the function either provided by a prior model or available only at some specific points and bounds on the function or any derivative in a given domain. Moreover, a new method for the simultaneous approximation of multiple outputs linked by some prior knowledge is proposed. This method also allows consideration of different types of prior knowledge on single outputs while training on multiple outputs. Synthetic examples show that incorporating a wide variety of prior knowledge becomes easy, as it leads to linear programs, and helps to improve the approximation in difficult cases. The benefits of the method are finally shown on a real-life application, the estimation of in-cylinder residual gas fraction in spark ignition engines, which is representative of numerous situations met in engineering. Editor: Dale Schuurmans.     

The future of prior art searching at the United States patent and trademark office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has experienced an increased volume and complexity of patent applications in recent years, with resulting problems in maintaining pendency times and quality. As part of the Office’s 21st Century Strategic Plan to deal with this and other problems, the outsourcing of prior art patent searches has been proposed. In this article the author explains the current situation––including the existing partial use of search contractors, briefly surveys some solutions adopted in other patent offices, and then details the outsourcing proposals. It is intended that the contracting out of searches will proceed initially by means of a proof of concept pilot conducted on the search reports prepared by the Office on international applications under the PCT. Contractors will need to be able to demonstrate technical and legal competence, that there is no conflict of interest between these and other searches they carry out, and that they will maintain strict confidentiality. If successful, a wider implementation will be rolled out, with procedures in place to ensure that high quality searches are provided on a continuous basis. Analogous contracting out of classification and reclassification functions is also described.     

开放分布系统安全中的Bayes信任模型

为了解决开放分布系统的安全问题,本文提出了一个Bayes信任模型.借鉴人类的信任概念,该模型根据直接经验和推荐信息可以计算出一个实体对其他实体的信任值.在该模型中,把实体间交互成功的概率作为信任的重要指标,选择Beta分布作为其先验分布,通过对实体间4种不同关系的分析,获得相应的成功交互概率的估计.最终可形成实体的相对稳定的交互系统,为是否和别的实体交互提供依据.该模型考虑了影响信任的主观因素和客观因素,且具有统计基础,为解决开放分布系统的安全问题提供了新方法.     

基于FPGA的高清实时视频去雾系统的设计与实现

实现了基于Xilinx XC6SLX45 FPGA的高清实时视频去雾系统,详细介绍了系统的逻辑框架及主要的算法实现.首先,介绍了整个系统的硬件框架及FPGA内部的逻辑框架;其次,描述了改进的暗原色先验去雾算法,给出了在FPGA中的算法实现过程;最后,对系统进行测试.实验结果表明,该系统实现了预期的高清视频实时去雾,并具有自适应功能,去雾效果良好.     

一种利用MAP估计的双目运动体视算法

本文提出一种融合运动和体视信息的运动与结构参数的鲁棒估计算法，算法首先通过计算瞬时ＦＯＥ，实现对每个像素处位移的ＭＡＰ估计，并计算关联的置信度；然后利用位移估计，从两图像序列之一计算相对深度，导出能用于匹配两体视图像序列的视差先验概率分布，使体视对的两帧图像匹配，确定３Ｄ景物深度，算法可方便地估计每个像素处的视差，不需对表面作平滑假设。     

Optimal allocation in stratified sampling with partial information

Summary The classical allocation formula of Neyman is replaced by a new formula which can accommodate prior information on the ratio of means in two strata. To accomplish this, a Bayesian approach is adopted and in this context partial prior information is quantified over the spectrum from absolute certainty to completely unknown.